


Infinite Possibilities

by MineRobber



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, but I think I'll leave that for a possible sequel, implied romantic Infidget, post-Forces Infinite, so the Phantom Ruby just dumped Zero in the middle of nowhere, unfortunately for him the nowhere happens to be a remote Resistance stronghold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23216491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MineRobber/pseuds/MineRobber
Summary: Infinite- or should I say, Zero- is stranded. Ruby-less and in the middle of a Resistance stronghold, he will do whatever it takes to survive.Sonic, meanwhile, goes for a run down his favorite forest trail when he notices a seemingly new section of the trail that wasn't there a while ago. He follows the new trail, even if he's never been this deep in the forest before...They were destined to meet. But will Sonic be able to forgive Zero for what Infinite did? Will Zero be able to forgive himself for what Infinite did?
Relationships: Avatar | Custom Hero (Sonic Forces) & Infinite (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 45





	1. The First Day

What did he do to deserve this?

It had felt like forever since he had been himself, and not... _Infinite_. Yikes. Even thinking of the name gave him shudders. After the fight with Shadow, he had been... _Infinite_ for the rest of the war. But now, the war was over, Eggman was defeated, and the Phantom Ruby... whatever happened to the Phantom Ruby was irrelevant. The only relevant part was that it had rejected him, and it was no longer with him. Now, he wasn't _Infinite_ , he was Zero.

Zero. Somehow, his real name was fitting. Without the Phantom Ruby, he was... well, nothing. Zero. Just a jackal, his wits, and his fists. Either way, when he came to, he was in the middle of the forest. He ran through the forest, winding down imagined paths until he found the main trail. He followed the trail out to civilization, but quickly changed his mind when he realized he was trapped within the walls of a Resistance stronghold. A Resistance stronghold... could it even be called that anymore? After all, nobody was resisting, and there was nobody to resist. The evil had lost, the good had won, and there was no reason to be a Resistance. Still, he assumed they didn't stop calling _themselves_ the Resistance. Either way, semantics aside, showing up at a Resistance stronghold after being their tormentor for the better part of the war? Not a good idea in the slightest.

So, Zero abandoned all hope of returning to civilization. Returning to the place he had first awoken, Zero realized that life wouldn't be too bad. There was a stream nearby with fresh water and fresh fish. While he had no axe, he was sure one could be fashioned out of rocks and the sticks on the forest floor. Maybe he'd build himself a nice cabin...

"No. Don't be ridiculous." He scolded himself. "If you stay here, you'll be found. After all of the things you did to them, you'd be lucky to escape with your life. Let's just try to survive and find a way out of this mess we're in."

He suddenly paused. That voice... _his_ voice! It had been so long since he had last heard his voice. Even talking to himself in the middle of the woods with nobody around, it took him a second to realize that his voice was his, and not... _Infinite's_.

But, dwelling on the past for too long would also get him caught. He had to do something to survive. He built a small tent out of twigs and leaves, put together a set of tools, and resolved to sneak into the city the next day and get some fishing line for a fishing rod. In the meantime, he picked some wild berries and ate them for... what time _was_ it, exactly? Looking up at the clearing, he saw the sky was growing lighter. Breakfast. He was having breakfast.

After 2 more meals of berries, night fell.

* * *

The blue blur loved nothing more than to run. This should come as no surprise.

He had a special trail that he always ran through. That should also be expected.

He knew the trail like the back of his hand. After all, he ran it almost every day, from the stronghold gates to the bubbling brook and back.

So why did it seem like there was suddenly a new fork in the road?

He stared at it, endlessly confused. He must have run this track about 1,000 times since he was freed from the Death Egg, and yet, he had never noticed the fork. It was then that he noticed the greenery on the floor. He hadn't been ignorant; this was a new path. Still, he didn't particularly have time to run this new path, especially not knowing how deep into the forest it went. Instead, he made a mental note to follow this fork in the road the next time he had time to kill. He finished his run and went back to the stronghold.

Little did Sonic know, it'd be a while until he had time to kill.

Just because the Resistance had beaten Eggman in the war didn't mean the good doctor didn't occasionally show up to harass Sonic and company with more robots. While they were nothing compared to how bad they were when Infinite was still around, that didn't mean that the robots didn't cause trouble. And, since Eggman was no longer busy running an Empire, he had lots of time to throw robots at Sonic and his friends.

First, dealing with Eggman. Then, figuring out what this new path held.

* * *

His disguise was almost perfect. He still looked like Infinite without a mask, but somebody's discarded sunglasses covered his eyes and made it almost impossible to see what color they were underneath. He walked around the supply store, looking for some fishing line. Eventually, he found some for 30 rings, but his heart sank. He didn't have rings. He couldn't work for somebody because it'd be only a matter of time before somebody noticed who he was. He walked out empty-handed, vowing to get 30 rings somehow.

Eventually, he spotted a wallet on the ground. He picked it up, and there were 500 rings. He thought for a second about taking the whole wallet, before stopping himself. He needed 30 rings. He'd only take 30 rings. He may be the ultimate mercenary, but by the Gods, _professionals have standards!_

He found a piece of paper and a writing utensil and wrote a small note, which he attached to the wallet (now 30 rings lighter):

"Found this wallet on the ground. Wanted to make sure it got back to its rightful owner."

He then left it outside what looked to be Resistance HQ, and he went back to the store to get his fishing line.

After paying for the fishing line, he went back to his little cove, back down the winding path to his current camping spot. Making a small fishing rod (using a fish hook he had found discarded on the trail), he decided to try some fishing in the morning.

But for now, he slept.

* * *

It may have been dark, but Sonic couldn't sleep. His thoughts were consumed with the new path on his trail. He didn't even know of anybody else who used that trail, let alone somebody who would forge their own path in a different way into the woods.

He was sitting in the main room of the headquarters when he heard the unmistakable sound of rings in a bag hitting pavement. He walked over to the door, cautious, when he saw a wallet on his doorstep. There was a note attached:

"Found this wallet on the ground. Wanted to make sure it got back to its rightful owner."

The insignia on the wallet meant it was obviously Tails'. Sonic chuckled at how Tails had panicked earlier in the day when the latter had lost his wallet.

Sonic could see a black mass walking away from HQ, although it was too dark to tell who it was. He yelled after the mass, "Thank you!" But whatever it was, it did not respond.

He walked over to where Tails was sleeping, and gently placed the wallet next to the young fox's head so as not to make a sound. Sonic was deepened in his resolve: he **would** get to the bottom of this new trail, no matter how long it took him.

After all, he might get to thank the Mobian behind the return of his friend's wallet.

But for now, he slept.


	2. The Second Day

Zero awoke to the sunrise and immediately began plotting for his escape. He had taken a free copy of a map of the area from the store where he had bought the fishing line the night prior. There was unclaimed wilderness just outside the stronghold walls; he could sneak out and be free. He plotted a course: starting from the marked trail he now knew was his outing to the stronghold proper, he would go down to the edge of the forest, sneak around the forest by the treeline (giving him cover if he needed to avoid detection), and just make a break for it once he saw the open gate. It seemed almost foolproof, as he pondered it over freshly caught fish and freshly picked berries.

He sighed: while his heart wasn't exactly raring to leave the place, his head knew that he'd be caught if he stayed. His soul and conscience sat there, watching his mind and heart bicker until he came up with a compromise: he would stay one more night. He would stay until the next day and then leave as one of the "badnik attacks" occurred. He didn't know how common they were, but judging by the tone the shopkeeper used, they seemed pretty common. It seemed so simple: as the badniks entered, he would exit, and they would be none the wiser. His heart complained, but his head reminded it that he was leaving this wilderness for yet another wilderness, and his heart quieted.

He began working on a sack to keep his things in; weaving it from pine needles and straw, it was ready to go. However, when he attempted to pack even his tools, the sack fell apart. He frowned; he didn't want to steal more rings, not to mention the fact that a wallet sitting on the ground was a deus ex machina moment to the nth degree that would probably not happen again. Regardless, it seemed like he would have to purchase a backpack since his sack was very clearly not structurally sound. If only he had some fabric to use for the sack, it'd stay together and hold well enough to get him far into the unclaimed woods. He sighed, since even buying a sample of fabric would cost more rings than he had (he didn't know how much fabric cost, but he knew it was more than nothing).

He ate a few more meals, and night fell.

* * *

Sonic was on his daily run. Tails had been glad to find his wallet lying next to his head when he woke up, even if Sonic used it as an opportunity to chide the young fox about being mindful of where your rings were at any given moment.

The rest of the morning had been well, with the Resistance planning a counter-attack on Eggman as payback for the almost constant barrage of badnik attacks. Fortunately for Sonic, he was eventually excused (even if he had to lie about why), and so he ran his normal route.

Eventually, he had ran the trail to its conclusion (and had even stopped to smell the flowers and enjoy the beauty of nature) before he ran back to the entrance of the new path. He didn't know how far it went, but he figured if he got started now, he'd be able to get to the end and back before-

_BZZZT!_ **CODE RED! BADNIKS SPOTTED AT THE NORTH GATE! ALL HANDS ON DECK!** _BZZZT!_

Shoot. He decided to put it out of mind for now, even though his curiosity would not be sated for much longer. In the here and now, his friends needed him to help them defeat the newest wave of badniks.

* * *

Zero put on his sunglasses disguise and _"wandered"_ into the shop. The shopkeeper immediately recognized him as the late-night shopper from the last night.

"Ah, friend, you're back! Is there anything I can help you with?"

Zero pondered for a second before disguising his voice. "Yes, actually. I was wondering how much it would cost to buy a backpack? I have some... tools I need to carry with me."

The shopkeeper's grin widened. "Tell you what, you're in luck! Somebody came in with their old backpack recently and bought a new one. When they left with their new backpack, they left the old one behind. You can have it, friend, and I won't even charge you for it."

Zero was confused at first but decided to take the compliment and the backpack. "Thank you, sir." He took the backpack, slinging it over his right shoulder. He could tell it was big enough to hold his tools, and it was lightweight enough to where it wouldn't impede stealth. "This will do nicely."

As Zero left, the shopkeeper waved at the back of his head. "Have a nice day, friend! See you tomorrow!"

Zero smiled to himself, knowing he'd be out of the stronghold by this time tomorrow. "You too. See you later."

He went back to his tent, packed his tools and fishing rod, and fell asleep by the fire. Tomorrow was the rapture day.

* * *

The fight against the new batch of badniks took most of the day, and it was nightfall by the time Sonic was back in Resistance HQ. He kicked off his shoes, right near his bed, and he plotted. He came up with a plan of his own (much like Zero's plan, although Sonic didn't know of Zero or his plan at the time): he would wake up very early (long before he normally did), run his route, and then try to take the new route through to its end and see what would happen. Hopefully, he'd be early enough to be down the path and back before a badnik attack.

He set his alarm for 5:30 in the morning and laid down. Between his thoughts and his curiosity, he fell asleep pretty soon, dreaming of the infinite possibilities of what could happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title drop! Also, in case it wasn't clear, the horizontal rules are perspective switches. I figured I'd bring this up in these end-chapter notes because otherwise, the number of horizontal rules in the next chapter would drive you insane.
> 
> So, the third day is the last one for this split-perspective day-by-day format. Maybe if Sonic and Zero split up again post-meeting, it'll come back, but until that happens, this format will be gone after the next chapter.


	3. The Third Day, An Encounter, And An Understanding

Sonic awoke to his alarm. It was time for him to do his daily run, and to check on the new path, as he had planned. He quickly shut off his alarm and put on his shoes. As he left Resistance HQ, he could just barely see the sun rise over the east wall. Perfect. All of Eggman's prior attacks had been around noon, so Sonic had plenty of time on his hands. He ran his entire normal route in 45 minutes (a new record for the hedgehog, although Sonic admitted to himself it was because of his curiosity for the new route). He decided to take his time running down the new path, if only because he was unfamiliar with the route and had time.

The path rounded lots of bends and went very deep into the forest. He'd never been this deep in the forest before, but he was willing to keep going for curiosity's sake. Eventually, the path rounded one last bend and went into a straight shot to a clearing, where, unbeknownst to him, a certain jackal was hiding.

* * *

Zero had woken up with the sunrise and had finished his packing from the last day. He put his fire out and started disassembling his makeshift tent.

He was going to miss this place. There was no question about that. The river nearby, the trees giving lots of shade, every last bit of it was loved. However, he knew that his leaving was for the best. After all, if he got caught, he'd probably be put to death. When he was Infinite, he had done some terrible things, and if killing him was meant to make up for those atrocities, that's what they'd do. That being said, he had no intention of getting caught.

As he finished packing his tent, Zero suddenly froze. He heard a twig break down the line from his path, and then another, and then another. It was clear to him that he had a visitor. Zero hid his backpack in the bushes and hid behind a large oak tree by the treeline furthest from his path. He hazarded a look over his shoulder and gawked when he saw just who his visitor was.

* * *

Sonic walked into the clearing and studied it religiously. For instance, there had clearly been a fire here recently, judging by the pile of charred wood in front of him. To the right of the remains of the fire, a lighter patch of grass clued him in that a tent had been there recently.

And yet, he still couldn't see anybody in the area. He mentally cursed himself. Of course, he had just missed the opportunity to meet the mystery hermit. Clearly, whoever had been there had fled before he could arrive. He sat down on a stump, presumably the remains of a tree that had been chopped down for firewood, and pondered the thought. Who had been there? Why had they left? Were they an associate of Eggman? If they weren't, then there would be no real reason for them to leave, unless they were nomadic. Even if they were nomadic, there were still plenty of resources to be had around here, meaning there was no real reason to move on...

Wait.

What was that sound? It sounded like rustling leaves and snapping twigs.

Sonic turned around and spotted somebody fleeing the scene. Bingo.

He sped up and tackled them before they could leave. When he saw who he had caught, Sonic couldn't believe his eyes.

* * *

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Sonic was here. Sonic was here. Why was Sonic here?

Zero mentally facepalmed. For one, he hadn't really done a good job of hiding his tracks. He didn't even try and disguise the point where his special trail branched off from the main trail. Of course, the cobalt hedgehog wasn't an absolute idiot and had followed the path down to the clearing. However, for another point, he should have left the previous night. If he had, then Sonic would've simply shown up to an empty clearing without any traces of him, and Zero would've been free.

Regardless, Zero saw his opportunity to leave when Sonic sat down on the stump of the first tree Zero had cut down. He quickly fished his backpack out of the bush and tried to run away, only to get flattened in an instant by a certain cobalt hedgehog. Emerald green met blue and yellow, and for a second, Zero thought Sonic didn't recognize him.

* * *

What was Infinite doing in a Resistance stronghold? Why didn't he have his mask? What was going on?

All of these questions and more weighed on Sonic's mind as he sat outside Infinite's cell. The jackal had sworn up and down that he was innocent, that he wasn't Infinite, that he wasn't spying on them. Anything that the jackal could possibly be charged with, he had denied. Still, Sonic knew it wasn't true. This was Infinite, who had killed so many Resistance soldiers Sonic couldn't even begin to put the death toll into perspective. This was Infinite, who had tormented Sonic for 6 months on the Death Egg while the latter was in captivity.

So why did something seem different about the jackal who was pacing in the cell in front of Sonic?

* * *

Zero couldn't believe his terrible luck. Sure enough, Sonic had recognized him as Infinite and had dragged him to the Resistance HQ, where he was currently cuffed and in a cell underneath the headquarters. He paced back and forth across the cell.

He hadn't done anything wrong. Well, that was a lie. He had stolen 30 rings (although he didn't want Sonic to know that), but other than that his record was clean. Now, Infinite, on the other hand, had a rap sheet long enough to wrap around the planet 5 times, and a body count that was astronomically high, to the point where Zero questioned if the numbers were inflated somehow.

Infinite had done so much wrong, and now Infinite was gone and Zero had to pay for it all. It just wasn't fair.

* * *

Sonic had plenty of questions for Zero, but before he could ask any questions, the jackal surprised him. When Sonic approached, Zero turned around and stared at the cell wall opposite the door. Sonic simply shrugged it off and went back to where he had been sitting the whole time. Suddenly, he heard a voice come from the cell.

"That'll teach me to return a wallet."

Sonic was stunned. Infinite had been the good Samaritan who returned Tails' wallet? "Wait, that was you?"

Zero smiled to himself. "Yes, sir. It was sitting in the middle of the street, and I picked it up and returned it."

Sonic remembered a discussion he had with Tails later yesterday. "Yeah, and you took 30 rings from it."

Zero simply turned around to look at Sonic. "Would you rather I took the whole 500 rings? Besides, it was sitting in the street for a while. Are you sure somebody else didn't take some?"

Sonic prepared himself to ask another question, only for a familiar buzz to interrupt him.

 _BZZZT!_ **CODE RED! BADNIKS SPOTTED AT THE NORTH GATE! ALL HANDS ON DECK!** _BZZZT!_

Sonic swore under his breath and hopped up, walking over to Zero's cell. "You're lucky."

The jackal looked at him incredulously. " _I'm_ lucky? How am _I_ lucky?"

Sonic smiled. "I can't bug you for more answers right now, because I have to get to the battle. The badniks are attacking again."

Zero was confused. "I thought you guys already defeated Eggman?"

"We defeated his empire, but he's still around and trying to attack us."

"Ah. Well, good luck with _that_."

Sonic didn't grace Zero with a response, simply running away. Zero curled into a ball and was probably about to cry when he noticed something shiny on the floor just outside his cell.

Sonic had dropped his keys.

Seriously? Of all of the _deus ex machina_ things to happen to him in the past day or two, this had to take the cake.

Zero was able to fit his hands through the bars and pick up the keyring, which he used to uncuff his arms and unlock his cell. He looked around, rubbing his wrists, when he noticed that everybody was gone. Sonic must not have been lying; everybody was off fighting the badniks. Zero went up the stairs and decided to have a look around this headquarters. It was clearly originally a house, with a living room in the front, a staircase setting off 2 floors of rooms to the right of the entrance, and a kitchen-turned-war-room to the left. He decided that was enough exploring for now, and that he wanted to prove his morals to Sonic. He saw his backpack on the table, and fished out his sunglasses, putting them on. He noticed a discarded Wispon lying on the table next to his backpack, and he decided it would be the last thing he ever stole. He picked up the Wispon and walked outside.

It was mayhem. People running every which way, collecting supplies from the armory, collecting supplies from wherever supplies could be found, scrounging up a kind of defense system.

Zero stopped one soldier who was running towards the armory. "Where's the fighting?"

The soldier barely had time to stop and tell him. "The badniks are advancing to Red Gate. We're trying to build a defense before the rear guard gets pushed back there." They immediately continued their run.

Zero simply nodded. "Alright." He decided to first check out the north gate, and then eventually find his way to Red Gate to help in the defense of the stronghold. That would prove his morals, wouldn't it?

He ran along the top of the west wall to the very north edge of the wall, and noticed that in all of the mayhem, nobody had closed the gate. Of course, that meant that any badniks destroyed could just be replaced with fresh bots from outside. Well, Zero was going to put a kibosh on that. One lever pull later, and the gate was closed. Any new badniks would have to somehow get through or over the wall.

That settled, Zero ran back along the west wall, looking for this "Red Gate" the soldier had told him about. It was hard to miss.

It was literally a big gate, like the north gate, but without the mechanism to close it. It was painted bright red (take a wild guess as to why they called it Red Gate), and soldiers were frantically building fortifications in front of it. Zero dropped down and decided to ask the soldier in charge what was happening.

Eventually, he found somebody who looked like a general or at least a sergeant. "I'm here to help. What's the plan?"

The sergeant looked at him, surprised to see somebody actually caring about battle plans. "Well, we're building fortifications to hold back the badnik onslaught. When the rear guard gets here, we'll push forward."

Zero simply shook his head. He knew all too well how the Doctor's badniks operated. "I have a better idea, but I'll need some soldiers to come with me."

The sergeant looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "And who are you to tell me how to plan my battle?"

Zero smiled to himself, as he already knew his cover story. "Someone who's spied on Eggman for a while. Look, if you want to have to keep falling back, you can go on with your plan. It doesn't seem to have worked out for you so far." He had a point; Red Gate was the fourth chokepoint, and the second to last before the badniks would be able to attack the main stronghold with impunity.

The sergeant simply shook his head. "Alright there, stranger." He turned to some of his soldiers. "Half of you go with the jackal. He thinks he has a better idea of how to battle than I do."

Zero knew an egotist when he saw one, but he ignored the urge to verbally dress down the sergeant. "Bring materials for more fortifications!"

His plan was simple; block off some room near the west wall to funnel the badniks towards the east wall, and then flank the badniks when they least expected it.

He addressed the soldiers, who listened to him for the most part because their sergeant had told them to. "When we charge, I want some of you to attack behind the badniks and try to hem them in. If they can't retreat and regroup, we'll finish this battle easily."

Suddenly, Sonic appeared in front of the sergeant. "The badniks are coming. We held out as long as we could."

The sergeant smiled. "I know you did. Tell half of your soldiers to go to the west wall; I have a contingency of soldiers there who can explain the plan of attack."

The rear guard arrived, with the badniks not far behind. Sure enough, half of the soldiers, led by Tails, immediately turned and went behind the fortifications by the west wall. Zero explained the gist of the plan to Tails, who relayed the information to the rest of the soldiers.

As the badniks approached, Zero stared them down. "Attack on my signal."

Tails repeated this information to his soldiers, and Sonic repeated this information to his soldiers. They were to wait for a signal and then make an attack.

The badniks flew into the area slowly but surely. Zero saw the soldiers raring to go. "Steady..."

The badniks near the back of the battle formation were decreasing in number, as more of them had entered the area. The soldiers were itching to jump over the fortifications and attack. Zero remained calm. "Steady..."

The last badnik entered the gate, and Zero could see that no more were entering. "Attack!"

It was no contest. The badniks were immediately hemmed in, and without any backup coming from the north, they were easily defeated. The sergeant grinned. "Another of my plans seen to perfection."

Zero immediately took offense. "Another one of _your_ plans? You wanted to attack head-on, same as you did at the last 3 gates."

The sergeant looked at him in disgust, while Sonic had a moment of realization. That voice, it sounded familiar...

Zero walked up to Sonic, smiling. He pushed his sunglasses down his snout, revealing his eyes, and held out a keyring to Sonic. "You dropped your keys."

Sonic was mad, but at the same time, he was impressed. He didn't peg Infinite to be the type to work well with others. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you..."

Zero smiled at him, the same cheeky smile Sonic had shown when the latter was first brought in front of Infinite. "Throw me in jail? That's what you did the last time I helped you."

The whole thing overwhelmed Sonic, and he simply shook his head. "Like I said, I don't know what to do with you."

Zero offered another smile. "I'll sleep in the cell for now."

Sonic simply smiled. "Good. We'll discuss things later."

Everybody looked on in shock, as Sonic and the jackal walked back to HQ. They didn't know what was going on. Who was this jackal? Why was he in jail?

None of these questions would be answered until much later. But for now, Sonic walked Zero back to HQ with newfound respect. He was still on edge about Infinite, but at least Infinite had decided to help the Resistance hold off Eggman for now. Nobody knew what the future would hold, but for now, they were, at the very least, allies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I can toss the split-perspective stuff in the trash for now. In case you couldn't tell, the last horizontal rule was a shift to an omniscient third-person perspective.


	4. One Stormy Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to spoil you all by beginning a new chapter as soon as I finished posting the last one. I hope you enjoy it, but don't get used to this update frequency. I just had an idea for some Zero-Tails bonding, partially to help Tails trust Zero, partially to flesh out Zero's character, and partially to give Sonic even more of a conflict (my enemy shows up, helps me defeat my other enemy, and helps comfort my friend when he's scared? what's going on?). I hope you enjoy this chapter.
> 
> Also, remember when I said chapter 3 was going to be the last split-perspective chapter? I lied. This is, seriously for real this time, the last split-perspective chapter I'm going to write for now. (I just need some way to introduce the conflicts separately.)

The night after the battle was a dark and stormy one. Just as the battle had raged during the day, a thunderstorm now raged outside.

Which is why a certain orange fox wasn't able to sleep.

Tails paced his room back and forth the whole time, trying to keep his fear from bubbling to the surface. He had always been afraid of lightning, ever since he was a young kit. He had gotten better at hiding said fear, but he was still afraid nonetheless. He'd walk around his room, and suddenly, a flash of light and a _BANG!_ would send him straight back to his bed and diving under the covers.

He shook his head. His room was too close to the outside. Maybe he could pace the jail below. Maybe that would calm him down. He went down the stairs and to the familiar collection of cells. Unbeknownst to him, he wasn't the only person roaming the halls of the jail.

* * *

Zero had always been a light sleeper. Something about having been a mercenary for as long as he had been, and being wary of an ambush attack, meant that the slightest noise could wake him from even the deepest of slumbers.

So a bunch of thunder and lightning, muffled as the thunder may be? Yeah, Zero wasn't really going to get any sleep until the storm passed.

After the battle, Zero had willingly returned to his cell. Sonic, in an interesting display of trust, hadn't locked him in. He was just laying on the poor excuse for a bed, without being cuffed. He could escape and run away, but he didn't. He wasn't really one to run from punishment, not to mention the cobalt hedgehog was very much conflicted as to whether any punishment was deserved. Zero wasn't about to throw any gained trust away.

As much as he wanted to prove he could be trusted, Zero was getting bored of lying awake on the planks that served as a "bed". He decided to take advantage of his unlocked cell and walk the halls until the storm passed and he could sleep.

* * *

It was dark in the jail. There was no moonlight, and the brief flashes of lightning were ineffective at lighting the room. Zero didn't turn the lights on because he didn't want to cause any suspicion, and Tails didn't turn the lights on because he thought "Infinite" was sleeping.

Of course, this means that a jackal and a fox are walking around in an almost pitch-black jail, unable to see even 3 feet in front of their faces.

Of course, they ended up running into each other. Quite literally.

Zero was the first to react. "Are you okay?"

Tails shook off the hit. "Yeah, I'm fine, nothing's-"

At that exact moment, a flash of lightning came through the window, followed by the _BANG!_ of thunder. Zero realized Tails was shaking. "...What's wrong?" He was genuinely concerned, although for what reason he did not know.

Tails was a little unsettled, partly because of the lightning and partly because he didn't expect the jackal to be concerned. "N-Nothing. I-I'm absolutely fine." He turned to walk away, only for Zero to stop him.

"Are you sure? You're shaking pretty badly. Is everything alright?"

Before Tails could respond, another flash of lightning and explosion of thunder resounded throughout the base. Tails jumped slightly; the lightning had seemed closer than before.

Zero decided to ask the question in a softer manner. "What's wrong? You can tell me."

Tails, thoroughly embarrassed, realized that "Infinite" wasn't going to let him leave without an answer. "...I'm afraid of lightning. Have been since I was young."

Zero paused for a moment to process this answer. Tails, the fox, the second-in-command to Sonic, was afraid of lightning? It made sense. From what Zero had gathered, not only was the fox a pilot, he was also able to fly on his own power. Obviously, somebody who flies often would be afraid of getting struck by lightning.

Tails turned away. "You probably think I'm weak." He started to leave, only for Zero to stop him again.

Zero smiled. "No, I think you're reasonable." He pulled Tails into a side-hug, surprising the fox. "It's okay. The lightning won't get to you down here."

Tails looked at the jackal incredulously. "I know that, but that-"

Zero stopped him. "I know, it doesn't make it any less scary. Still, I'm here for you."

Tails tried to pull away. "I knew it, you think I'm weak-"

Zero stopped him again. "No. As I said, you're reasonable." He adjusted his grip on the fox, trying to get into a more comfortable position for both of them. "Also, stop treating being weak as a bad thing. Trust me, I've been there. It's a horrible place."

A look of realization flashed across Tails' face like a lightning strike. "So you **are** Infinite-"

Zero shook his head, cutting Tails off. " _ **Was**_ Infinite. Big distinction there." He shifted a little, uncomfortable discussing his past. "After that final battle, the Phantom Ruby rejected me and sent me into the woods, alone. I was on my way out of the stronghold when Sonic found me."

Tails was going to say something, ask a question, when the next lightning strike hit, followed by the loudest crash of thunder yet. Tails instinctively held Zero tight, his fear bubbling to the surface.

Zero simply held Tails closer. "Shh... shh... it's okay. It's okay. I'm here." He didn't know what was possessing him to the point where he cared this much for the fox he now held close, but he didn't mind much. "We're fine. There's no lightning down here."

Through his fear, Tails was able to crack wise. "Really? I couldn't tell."

Zero simply smiled. "Feeling better?"

Tails frowned. "No, not really. I just had to say that, you left me with no choice."

Zero returned the frown. "Whatever." He allowed a small smile to return to his face. "As I was saying, everything's going to be oka-"

Again, a flash of lightning came through the window. Zero began counting on his fingers (with the hand that wasn't holding Tails). One second later, the crash of thunder came, a little quieter than before. Still, it was too close for comfort for the poor fox, who again clung tight to the jackal's frame.

Zero returned to his base calming instincts. "Shh... shh... it's okay. It's okay."

Tails shuddered. He decided it was his turn to open up about his past (since Infinite had opened up about his). "It was a stormy night when it happened."

Zero looked at him, curious. "When what happened?"

Tails looked to Zero for support. "When my parents died."

Zero held the fox closer. Of course, Tails had been an orphan. Zero felt bad for him and didn't press for any more details.

Tails offered more information anyways. "They were out at a picnic when the storm came. They rushed to get inside, but they were unlucky enough to get struck." He shuddered again. He hated this part of the story. "They never came back home. Eventually, I had to move on and fend for myself. Combine that with how often I fly, and... you get the picture."

Zero shuddered in turn. "That's horrible..."

Before Tails could respond, the next flash of lightning came. Zero counted again. 3 seconds. The lightning was getting further away. Still, the crash of thunder was too much for Tails, who somehow clung to Zero's frame even tighter than before, something Zero had thought was impossible.

Zero continued to hold Tails close. "Shh... shh... it's okay. It's okay."

Tails was... crying? "If I hadn't found Sonic, I might have never gotten off West Side Island. Who knows what would have happened to me?"

Zero continued comforting the fox. "But you did find Sonic. You went with him and became one of the world's greatest heroes."

Before Zero could continue, the next flash of lightning came. Zero counted again. 5 seconds. The lightning was getting even further away. That didn't soften the impact of the crash of thunder, however. Tails managed to wrench himself free of the side-hug and desperately clung to Zero, muttering nonsense words.

Zero hugged Tails back. "Shh... shh... It's okay. It's okay. The lightning's getting further away."

Tails, through his tears, looked into Zero's eyes. "It is?"

Zero nodded. "The next time you see the flash of lightning, count how many seconds there are between the lightning and the thunder. The longer the time is between the two, the further away the lightning is." He shifted, a little uncomfortable with how close Tails was to him. "It went from one second to three seconds, and then to five seconds."

As if on cue, the next strike flashed in the window. Tails counted out loud. "One... two... three... four... five... six... seven..." The crash of thunder was heard, and Tails instinctively threw himself at Zero again. This time, the jackal was ready for it. Tails sounded amazed. "You're right. It is getting further away."

Zero smiled and hugged Tails close. "See? It's okay. Everything's going to be alright."

Between Zero's soothing words, and the pitter-patter of rain on the rooftop plainly audible even in the jail, Tails felt himself drifting to sleep, despite himself. He tried to stay awake, to avoid falling asleep in the arms of somebody he once considered an enemy (even if he somewhat trusted the jackal now), but to no avail. The next thing he knew, he was asleep.

Zero smiled and softly whispered to himself. "Let's get you to bed."

Zero climbed the stairs, careful to avoid the spots where they creaked under his weight. Eventually, he found himself in the living room from before. Zero wasn't sure which room was Tails', so he laid the fox down on the couch, sitting on the opposite end of the couch and keeping watch over his sleeping form.

It was at that moment that Zero realized what he was feeling, and he mentally slapped himself for not realizing it earlier: it was the same kind of protective companionship he had felt towards his Squad Jackal before the Mystic Jungle incident. Of course, his mind had seen the fox as another companion, another soul to take care of, and so he had felt oddly protective of Tails, even though he barely knew the fox.

Regardless, as the storm died down outside, Zero got comfortable and laid down himself. With a lack of noise, he fell asleep quickly.

~*~*~

Imagine the sight that greeted Sonic when he woke up and went to the living room. Tails was passed out on the couch, covered in blankets, and Infinite, who he had left in the jail, is sleeping on the other side of the couch. Obviously, Sonic wasn't too happy about this, especially since he didn't know what had happened the previous night.

He walked over to Zero and shook him. Now, Zero is a light sleeper, as we've already established. So the hedgehog really should've seen it coming when Zero, snapped into alertness, tried to choke him out, before realizing what was going on and letting go.

Sonic was mad. "What are you doing?! I thought you were-"

Before Sonic could continue his tirade, Zero shushed him, pointing at Tails. "He's sleeping. Let's discuss this downstairs."

The jackal and the hedgehog went back down to the jail, with Zero reassuming his normal position on his "bed", although this time Sonic saw fit to also stand in the cell.

Sonic was the first to speak. "So do you want to explain what exactly the hell you were doing outside of your cell?"

Zero smiled to himself, although Sonic couldn't see. Maybe that was for the best. "First off, you didn't lock me in or tell me I _had_ to stay in the cell."

Sonic looked almost hurt. "You promised you would!"

"I didn't promise anything. I just said I'd sleep in the jail cell, knowing what I knew then."

"So something changed?"

Zero looked at Sonic. "There was a big storm last night."

Sonic was exasperated. "So?!"

"I'm a light sleeper."

Sonic had a moment of realization. "Oh."

Zero looked back at the wall and smirked. "Besides, I had a... _visitor_."

Sonic's mind was immediately brought back to the scene in the living room, and he was angry again. "What did you do to him?!" Sonic ran over to Zero and started shaking him again. The jackal very simply pushed Sonic off of him, making it clear that the constant shaking was not appreciated.

Zero smiled to himself. "I didn't do anything. Honestly, I'm hurt you would even assume I did anything to hurt your friend-"

Sonic cut him off. "Like hell, I'm gonna believe that. What did you do?"

He was interrupted by a voice coming from the stairwell. "Hey, Infinite?" Tails had woken up, no doubt from all of the yelling and screaming, and came down to the jail.

Zero smiled at Tails. "Please, call me Zero."

Tails smiled back. "Well, _Zero_ , thanks for helping me out last night." He turned and went up the stairs, not seeing Sonic's jaw hit the floor.

Zero stifled a laugh at Sonic's expression. "See? He's perfectly well."

Sonic was surprised. "'Thanks for helping me out last night'?" He turned to Zero. "I'll ask you again, what did you do?"

Zero looked shocked. "There was a big storm last night." He decided to emphasize a point. "A big _thunder_ storm."

Sonic was unamused, having no idea why the jackal felt the need to emphasize that it was a thunderstorm as if they didn't experience the same storm last night. "So?"

Zero continued to look shocked. "Wow, and you call yourself his best friend." He readjusted on the bed, studying the lack of realization on Sonic's face. Zero's face dropped when he realized. "You honestly don't know."

Sonic was mad that Infinite- Zero- whoever it was, they thought he wasn't enough of a friend to Tails. "What are you talking about?"

Zero looked at the ceiling. "He's afraid of lightning."

Sonic knew Tails had had a fear of lightning, although he thought Tails had gotten over it years ago. Still, he didn't get it. "So?"

Zero looked at Sonic weirdly, unsure how the cobalt hedgehog could be _this_ much of an idiot. " _So,_ he came down here to get away from the thunder and lightning. Meanwhile, I was pacing the halls, since I couldn't fall asleep. All the lights were off, so we ended up... running into each other. Literally." Zero shifted to look at Sonic sharply. "I helped him calm down, and he ended up passing out in my arms. I carried him upstairs, and, when I felt that he was going to be okay, I decided to just go to sleep right there." He shrugged. "I didn't really see a reason to trek back down the stairs just to sleep on this sorry excuse of a bed." He left out a lot of the story, a lot of the specifics, but he had said enough to where Sonic could hopefully draw himself a picture.

It was Sonic's turn to look shocked. "...So you really didn't do anything to hurt Tails?"

Zero was offended. " _YES!_ Finally, you get it. I would never do anything of the sort." Zero turned over in his "bed" to face the wall. "Besides, why would he thank me if I hurt him?"

Sonic was taken aback. Zero was right; if he had hurt Tails, then Tails wouldn't have tried to find him and thank him. "I... I'm _so_ sorry. I assumed the worst when I didn't have all the facts-"

Zero turned back around to face Sonic. "It's okay. Apology accepted." He sat up. "Now can we have breakfast? Or is that not something you do?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter, when I get around to writing it, will cover the rest of that day. I just had this idea and I really wanted to get it out before the idea left me.
> 
> From this point on, horizontal rules will be time-skips, unless I say it's a split-perspective chapter in the opening notes. Typing out "~*~*~" is more effort than just clicking the horizontal rule button. Plus, technically, a time-skip is a kind of perspective change, in a way? I don't know.
> 
> Also, this is the longest chapter by word count (2,644 words in total). I just thought you should know that.


	5. Off To War

After a light breakfast (Sonic made pancakes), Zero was pushed out of the kitchen. It made sense: since the kitchen doubled as a war room, they clearly needed to be able to hold a meeting in there. He felt miffed that he wasn't involved in proceedings, but he understood why: some of them were still on the fence about whether he could be trusted.

Still, maybe he couldn't be trusted, since he waited just outside of the war room to hear whatever he could.

"Alright, today's the day. Sergeant, do you have the battle plans?"

Zero gawked. They were really trusting that idiot to come up with battle plans?

"Yes, I do. We'll cause a commotion to the east, drawing the defence robots there, before attacking from the south. He won't know what hit him."

Zero mentally facepalmed (actually facepalming at that moment was so tempting, but Zero knew they would hear it). The doctor may make boneheaded decisions every now and again, but the man still had 300 IQ and plenty of bots to go around. A small contingency attacking from the east would be easily spotted for what it was (a diversion) and he'd focus his efforts elsewhere (still sending a few bots to deal with the intruders, but focusing his defence efforts elsewhere).

"Sounds like a great idea!"

Of course, Knuckles thought it was a good idea; he thought Operation Big Wave would work. Zero shook his head; he'd probably need to fish this operation out of the fire.

"Alright, then it's settled! We'll rally the troops and get Operation Tsunami on the road."

Sonic was ready to go, but Tails interrupted him. "What about Zero?"

"What about him?"

Tails seemed confused. "Why aren't we including him in this meeting? He worked with Doctor Eggman, clearly, he'd know more about Eggman's defences-"

"Yeah, and he could tell Eggman of our plan in advance. No way. I still don't trust him."

Knuckles seemed firm on this much.

Sonic stopped Tails from throwing a fit. "Alright, but I'm still including him as a soldier. We need as many attackers as we can."

Knuckles tried to protest, but ultimately decided to keep his mouth shut. "Fine."

Sonic seemed to smile. "Good! I'll go get him-"

Zero sped down the stairs and hopped onto his "bed", taking care to make it look as if he hadn't been listening in on them.

Soon enough, Sonic appeared in the door. "Hey, In-" He stopped himself. "Zero, we're going to attack Eggman's base."

Zero put on his best surprised face. "Really? Why?"

Sonic walked into the cell, not particularly feeling threatened at the moment. "Well, we want to pay him back for the badnik raids."

Zero smiled, remembering the time he saved that defence from the Sergeant's stupidity. "Ah, I see."

Sonic paused. "Tails wanted to include you in the meetings, but Knuckles still doesn't trust you."

Zero rolled over to face the wall. "I don't really blame him. Haven't done much to gain _his_ trust." He rolled back over to look at Sonic. "And you're telling me this why?"

"Well, we could use an extra body attacking on the ground."

Sonic didn't need to tell Zero twice. "I'm in."

Sonic smiled. "Good to have you on the team."

* * *

When they got within a mile of Eggman's base, they split into their two groups. Zero was placed in the Sergeant's group, along with a few other soldiers, including a red wolf and a few other nondescript Mobians. The plan was to trek east, double back and attack, making it seem as if they had come from a different settlement to the east. Then, while Eggman was dealing with them, the rest of the troops would sneak in from the South, taking advantage of what little time they'd have while the defences shifted to cover them. Zero knew this plan was dumb, but he couldn't do anything until he was proven right. He hung near the back, "to watch for any spy robots", as he put it to the Sergeant. Surprisingly, the red wolf stayed back with him.

They were both out of earshot, and the wolf was the first to speak up. "So, what do you think of the Sergeant?" When Zero looked at him quizzically, he responded. "You seemed pretty eager to fall to the back of the group."

Zero nodded. "Yeah, because otherwise, I'd tear his head off. He has a death wish; none of this will work, mark my words."

The wolf seemed confused. "Are you sure? It seems well thought out."

Zero smiled. "It would _seem_ that way, sure, but the Doctor has an IQ of 300. Clearly, he'd have planned for being able to quickly scale his defences." He paused. "Either way, the Sergeant's a numbskull, and the less I have to hear from him, the better."

The wolf smiled back. "Yeah. As crazy as it sounds, I preferred when Knuckles was in charge of battle plans."

"Why?"

"At least Knuckles failed in style." The wolf paused. "I'm not sure I agree that the Sergeant's a complete numbskull though; he held Red Gate pretty well."

Zero smirked. "Yeah, when I basically overthrew his battle strategy and substituted my own, it worked out pretty well." The red wolf looked at him weirdly, so he continued. "The Sergeant was just going to attack head-on. I was the one who decided to take some soldiers and flank the badniks."

"Oh. Well, how are you going to save this one then?"

Zero paused. "I don't know. The answer usually comes to me when I need it, though."

"Ah." The wolf smiled. "Anyways, it's nice to meet you. I'm Gadget." He held out his hand.

"Zero. Likewise." Zero shook Gadget's hand. "Not that many people trust me, especially those that know of my past." He could sense the curiosity on the wolf's face, but he decided to shoot that down before it grew too much. "I don't want to talk about it."

Gadget rubbed the back of his head. "I can imagine." Zero could tell there was a hidden past there, but decided to ignore it. "Anyways, it was nice to meet you. I'd better get back near the front of the formation, before the Sergeant notices I'm gone."

Zero nodded. "Nice to meet you, too."

Soon, they were at the east wall of the Doctor's fortress. Sure enough, as soon as they got over the wall, they were swarmed by bots. As they fought back wave after wave of badniks, Zero could hear the Sergeant key up his communicator. "We are go for phase 2. I repeat, Operation Tsunami is a go for phase 2."

"Roger that."

The waves of badniks sent to them died down. Zero kept a countdown in his head, and when it hit zero, he already knew what Sonic was going to say.

"We've been hemmed in, there's no escape! They surrounded us way too quickly."

The Sergeant was incredulous. "How? We gave you plenty of distraction!"

Zero cleared his throat. "The Doctor is smarter than we give him credit for. He probably spun up badnik production when he saw us come from the east."

Sonic sounded panicked. "Well, that doesn't do us any good! Retreat!"

The Sergeant started to retreat as ordered, before Zero stopped him. "Are you kidding me? We're just going to leave them to die?"

"There's nothing we can do for them now. If they don't survive, we need to be able to continue the Resistance."

Zero shook his head. "You numbskull! If they die, there won't **be** a Resistance to continue!" He turned back towards the fortress. "I'm going in. We might be able to pull some badniks back from the south if we get a little closer to Eggman. Anybody with me?"

Unsuprisingly, nobody stepped up to be with him.

Zero shook his head again. "Fine, I'll go by myself." He turned back towards the base, only to feel a hand on his shoulder.

He spun around to see everybody gone, except for Gadget. "I'm going with. I'm done being a coward."

Zero nodded. "Let's get going, then."

* * *

Admittedly, going from around 30 soldiers to 2 meant that they didn't pull as many badniks away from the conflict at the south as Zero had planned, but it still increased the survival chance of Sonic and the rest of the army. Gadget and Zero eventually got to a point in the halls where Zero turned around. "Stay here. Pick off any badniks that come this way."

Gadget was incredulous. "Where are you going?"

Zero looked down the hall, a wicked grin on his face. "To meet the Eggman himself."

Gadget tried to stop him. "Are you out of your mind?"

Zero looked back at him. "A little bit."

Before Gadget could stop him again, Zero sped off down the hall.

* * *

Zero had traveled these halls and corridors so many times he had lost count. Infinite had traveled them even more than Zero had. So, obviously, it should come as no surprise that within about a half an hour, Zero showed up at the Doctor's door.

Doctor Eggman, for his part, had turned on a camera feed to the main area of the fortress so he could gloat at Sonic. "Your plan failed! I have you now, Sonic!"

Zero smirked. "Hello, Doctor."

Eggman almost jumped several feet out of his chair, prompting a laugh from Sonic on the other end. "What are you doing here?"

Zero looked at Eggman the way an adult looks at a child who is throwing a temper tantrum (when the child isn't theirs). "Putting your life in danger so you have to send more badniks up here to save your rotund behind. What does it look like I'm doing?"

Eggman looked at Zero incredulously. "That's what I've been doing! Why hasn't it worked?"

Zero smirked again. "For one, you've been sending barely any badniks my way. Secondly, I have a..." He paused, to fish the word for "someone working alongside you" out of his memory, since he had repressed that word from his memory when the Jackal Squad died. "...partner who is further down the hall who's taking out badniks that come this way."

It was Sonic's turn to ask Zero a question. "Not to complain about the help, Zero, but weren't you supposed to retreat?"

Zero looked to the camera and smiled. "The Sergeant said something about that, yes, but I tend to ignore idiots who aren't worth their title. I'm just fishing this plan out of the fire, like I did at Red Gate."

Sonic didn't respond, so Eggman decided to speak up. "So, Zero, come to work for me again?" It seemed like he already knew the answer, but he was asking in a last-ditch effort to save his skin.

Zero spat in Eggman's general direction. "Like I'd ever work with you again. You can't even handle an empire when you have a gem of almost infinite power. Even **if** I still wanted to destroy the world -- and that's a BIG **if** \-- I wouldn't work with you again no matter what you offered." He walked up to Eggman, brandishing his stolen Wispon. "You've wronged me. You know how you've wronged me, so I won't repeat it." He loaded the wispon with more energy. "And I'm not particularly merciful to those who have wronged me. Any last words?"

As if on cue, a bunch of badniks swarmed the room, followed by Gadget hot on their heels. Sonic looked up to the camera again. "They all left! We're free!" He seemed conflicted in his next words. "Thanks. I'll talk to you... later?"

Zero smiled. "Later."

* * *

Between Gadget and Zero, both using wispons, they were able to clear the room. Unfortunately, Eggman got away, but Zero knew Eggman would need to regroup before he planned any more advances against Sonic and company. He was happy.

He and Gadget talked more on the way back to the base. As it turns out, Gadget was actually the owner of the wispon Zero stole. He returned it, clearly, apologizing for taking it. Gadget had forgiven him, noting that he had needed it to take care of the badniks anyways. Zero told Gadget about his sword, lamenting the fact that he no longer had it in his possession. Gadget hadn't said anything in response to that, but Zero swore he could see a plotting smile on Gadget's face. Also, Zero learned that Gadget was shy around groups of people, and preferred sign language. Luckily, Zero already knew Mobian Sign Language. (It was the easiest way to silently communicate between Jackal Squad members during a heist.)

Soon, however, they got back to base. Knuckles was the first to address Zero. "Are you mad? You could've gotten Gadget killed!"

Zero snorted. "Sure, like listening to the Sergeant didn't put you all in serious danger already." He walked up to the red echidna, unfazed by his anger. "Besides, I actually told Gadget to stay back at the last chokepoint before Eggman's lair. He's the one who rushed in and helped me take the badniks out."

Knuckles was still red hot. "Yeah, but you still put a life at risk! I-"

Zero cut Knuckles off, knowing exactly where he was going and what he was implying. "And I saved at least 300 lives by it. The only Resistance life I personally put at risk was my own. Gadget helping me with the badnik swarm was his idea, not mine." He looked over at the red wolf. "Not that I minded the help."

Gadget took the cue and signed back "[You're welcome.]"

Knuckles was speechless. "What do you mean, you saved 300 lives?"

Zero paused, not entirely sure how stupid Knuckles could be. "By putting Eggman's life in danger, I forced him to call the badniks away from the battle out front to save him."

Sonic spoke up. "We were hemmed in, remember, Knucklehead?" He gestured to Zero. "If it weren't for him almost blasting Egghead's face off, we probably would've lost badly."

Knuckles rubbed the back of his head. "Oh. Right." He turned to Zero. "Hey, sorry about not including you in battle plans. I just wasn't sure I could trust you. No offense."

Zero smiled. "None taken." He paused for a second. "Either way, based on what I know of Eggman, he's going to be out of commission for a while. We're safe, for now."

Sonic smiled, although Zero swore there was still conflict in his eyes. "That's good to hear."

Knuckles didn't seem to notice. "I'll call a town hall, and we'll let the people know we succeeded."

Sonic gave the same weak smile. "Sounds like a plan, Knucklehead."

Knuckles smiled back at Sonic. "I'll go write my speech."

After Knuckles left, Zero walked over to Sonic. "Is everything okay?"

Sonic almost recoiled, before relaxing. "Yeah! I just... need some time to figure things out."

Zero smiled at him. "Well, I'll leave you to it."

* * *

Knuckles gave his speech later that day. Sonic was noticeably absent, but nobody seemed to notice.

Because Knuckles was such a bad speech-giver (honestly, they should've had Sonic give the speech, then it would have been full of energy and passion), Zero found it more fun to sign jokes at Gadget from across the room. Once the wolf caught on to what Zero was trying, they signed at each other for a while, substituting Knuckles' boring speech with an interesting conversation of their own. They were quickly becoming friends.

Meanwhile, as Gadget and Zero joked around with each other, Sonic was sitting in the headquarters, seriously lost with a dilemma all his own to worry about.

For now, the Resistance celebrated a mission completed, a problem solved. 

Unfortunately for Sonic, he still had a problem to solve.

And that problem didn't seem to be going away.


	6. A Moral Quandary At Midnight

That night, after Knuckles' boring speech, everybody went to bed. Amy found some extra blankets and pillows so Zero could actually have something resembling a bed while they tried to find somewhere for him to live, while everybody else just went back to their rooms and slept.

Well, almost everybody slept. A certain cobalt hedgehog, on the other hand, was lying awake in his bed.

He tried to hide it from the others, but the 6 months he was captured were real torture. He kept his face up, but inside, he was a broken mess when the Resistance finally got him back. He was able to eventually pick up the pieces well enough to fight Infinite again, but he was still partially dealing with the trauma.

And then, the very same jackal who tormented him for 6 months with visions of his friends dying, of forests burning, of the world falling under Eggman's control, that very same jackal walks into his life, comes up with a battle plan to defeat the badniks, helps Tails with his fear of lightning, and then almost kills Eggman to save him?

What's going on?

Infinite always struck fear in everybody. Sometimes, even Eggman seemed afraid of Infinite, and the Doctor was on Infinite's side. But Zero seemed different. Zero just seemed like you wouldn't want to be on his bad side. If you were friends with him, he didn't have any problems with you, but if you were on his bad side, may Chaos have mercy on your soul and all that jazz.

Sonic didn't imagine this much of a heel-face turn from the jackal, especially considering the torment Sonic faced those 6 months.

Every day, it started with a fake rescue attempt that ended in one of his friends getting shot to death, then the jackal would laugh at him. They'd play card games until the jackal got bored and then Sonic would be "set free" into a jungle that would soon be set on fire like Angel Island Zone. Eventually, Sonic would wake up in his cell again, and Infinite would force him to watch Eggman's empire expand across the Earth in real-time. Then, Sonic would fall asleep for real, and the cycle continued the next day.

The faked death of a friend, the use of illusion powers to cheat at card games, the jungle burning to the ground again and again, and real-time updates on how his friends were failing without him, while he was powerless to help them. Day after day, week after week, for 6 months.

How could somebody be that awful?

Sonic's thoughts wandered back to what Zero said to Eggman. "You've wronged me." What could that possibly mean? Don't get him wrong, Eggman has done plenty of things wrong, but what could Doctor "gonna blow up the world because I forgot it needs to be intact for me to be able to rule it" Eggman do to somebody to make them mad enough to want to blow his face off? He saw the look in Zero's eyes, he knew the jackal wasn't bluffing.

Either way, his mind came back to the issue at hand: what changed? How exactly do you get from Infinite, who strikes fear into everybody around him, to Zero, who you didn't need to fear unless you were on his bad side? How do you go from torturing someone for 6 months to helping them defeat their enemy?

Maybe the jackal was bluffing with his help and hiding his demeanor in a desperate bid to save his life. It would make sense, seeing as how being Infinite all over again would lead to, probably, death. Still, if Zero truly feared for his life, he'd have ran away after getting out the first time and not helped them defeat the badnik onslaught. Maybe there was more to him than met the eye.

Honestly, this just made his current quandary even worse. He's not even sure he wants to put Zero in jail anymore. If you had asked Sonic immediately following the end of the war, he might have even wanted Zero dead. But ultimately, he wanted Infinite dead, and he wasn't entirely convinced that Zero and Infinite shared more than a body.

He rolled over in his bed. There was no use arguing about it now. He'd have to ask Zero about it in the morning, although how much the jackal would divulge might not be enough to settle the war in Sonic's heart and mind.

Unbeknownst to Sonic, Zero was also having a quandary in the cell below. A very similar quandary, but from a different perspective.

* * *

Something about this didn't feel right.

Zero tried to fall asleep, but his mind was going a million miles a minute. He should have ran away a long time ago. His original plan, after all, had been to disappear into the woods without a trace. But now, not only had he basically joined the Resistance, he had tried to blow Eggman's face off. Granted, the nimrod deserved it for what he did to Zero's squad... but still. He tried to blow Eggman's face off in a gambit to save Sonic and the Resistance. It had worked, but it left him with one burning question... why?

Why did Gadget, who had been at practically no risk of being injured, follow the badniks in to help Zero defeat them? If it had been Zero in that position, he would have ran away... well, no, that was a lie. He'd have ran into the room to save Gadget, but that was because this entire gambit was his idea, and the only person he felt safe sacrificing was himself. But why wouldn't Gadget be willing to sacrifice him? He barely even met Zero! If a character with a shady past who was distrusting of an authority figure showed up, talked to Zero, and then asked him to put his life on the line in a final gambit to save the Resistance? Zero would have laughed in his face and ran away!

Furthermore, why was everybody in the Resistance so willing to accept him into their ranks? Infinite would have wondered why he didn't just throw off the mask, hide the Ruby with a scarf, and waltz into a Resistance base asking to join.

But that was Infinite, and that was exactly why he expected some sort of, well, resistance to his being in the Resistance. But there was no such difficulty. Everybody was just so willing to include him in their group!

Zero guessed he'd have to confess eventually to having been Infinite, but what was there to say? They didn't share much more than a body (although Zero wished they had shared more, as having to watch some other being control your body is very, **very** disturbing).

Still, he guessed that nobody would believe his story. Why would they? They had no reason to. He had been Infinite, and to many, that was horrible enough to call for his execution, not to mention a lifetime in prison.

But then, things seemed to be different than he expected. After his _tour de force_ , he expected the mouthful from the red echidna (who Gadget told him was named Knuckles). What he hadn't expected was for Sonic to stand up for him, not to mention the pink one (named Amy) had actually offered to get him blankets and pillows to put in his cell. Why? Why were they so willing to help him? He guessed it was probably partially because he had saved their lives, and partially because- Zero still wasn't sure how many people knew his secret. Sonic knew, and Zero had told Tails himself. But apart from that, Zero didn't know who was aware of it.

Things would have been much easier if that blue hedgehog hadn't got involved. Zero would be off in the woods, making himself a cabin, and he wouldn't have all of these questions. Like, why did Sonic defend him? Why was Amy so willing to help him? Why did Gadget put himself in danger to save Zero? 

Why did things have to be so difficult?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My plan is to post on the 1st and 15th of each month. I have plans up to Chapter 8, and I've written to Chapter 7. The main issue is trying to make a schedule that works within the confines of my currently-hectic real-life schedule, but 2 updates a month should suffice.


	7. Trying to Solve Problems, And A New Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you get to the chapter, I'd just like to say in advance that updates might slow down after Chapter 8. I don't really have a plan past there, so I need more time between updates (since I have to not only write the chapter but also come up with the idea).
> 
> I promise you, I'm not abandoning this story, I just need more time to create an end product I'm happy with.
> 
> Chapter 8 will post July 1st, and the remaining chapters will be on the 1st of every month (as opposed to the 1st and 15th schedule I had originally planned). This gives me a whole month to plan out the chapter and write it, as opposed to only having 2 weeks (my usual "I have it planned just need to write it" pace).
> 
> I promise you this fic will have a satisfactory ending. I didn't get to Chapter 8 to give up now.
> 
> Also, I'm going to take a second to plug my [Discord server](https://khuxkm.ttm.sh/discord). Things that could possibly happen include fun times, friendships, and even possibly chapter draft leaks.
> 
> Without further ado, enjoy!

After Zero woke up, he was called to the war kitchen (as he had decided to affectionately call it).

Amy was there, and she greeted him when he walked in. "Hey... Zero, is it?"

Zero smiled. Finally, somebody other than Sonic remembered his name. "Yeah."

Amy looked down at her papers. "Well, I was looking for a place for you to stay. After all, it wouldn't be fair to keep you locked up in the jail."

Zero interrupted her, almost as soon as she finished her last sentence. "Actually, it kinda would, but that's a whole another can of worms and I don't want to go there..."

Amy paused for a second, before continuing. "So, ultimately, the best I can do right now is to send you to live with someone else. I tried to find a place you could live alone, but-"

Zero could tell Amy felt bad about forcing him to live with someone else, and he decided to cut her off before she spent the next hour apologizing. "It's okay. Who am I going to stay with?"

Amy smiled. "Well, Gadget had a spare room..."

Zero's eyes lit up slightly. "Alright! Somebody I can stand..."

Amy placed her hand on her chest in mock disapproval. "And you can't stand me?"

Zero pondered it for a second, before replying. "I can stand you, I'm just not sure I could stand **living** with you."

Amy chuckled. "Fair. Anyways, I guess you can pack up-"

Sonic popped into the room. "Actually, Zero, can I talk to you?"

Zero nodded; he had been worried about Sonic since the previous evening. "Sure. Let's go back to the cell so I can grab my stuff." They went down to the cell, and Zero hopped onto the "bed" for the last time. "So, what's up?"

Sonic shifted, a little uncomfortable. "Well... I'll be frank-"

"I thought you were Sonic." Zero chuckled dryly. "Sorry, continue."

Sonic looked at him indignantly, before continuing. "...anyways, I was wondering if you could tell me more about how exactly being Infinite worked. I'm having some serious moral hangups here."

Zero sighed. "I assumed you'd eventually want to know. The short answer is that it's really complicated."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate?"

"So, basically, Infinite was mostly a product of the Phantom Ruby. I basically just sat and watched as Infinite did whatever he wanted. Torture, murder, whatever he desired, he did and I was powerless to stop him. Well, _mostly_ powerless..."

Sonic was intrigued. " _Mostly_ powerless? How so?"

"Well, there were some times where I could intervene and stop Infinite from doing whatever it was he was doing. That's part of the reason why Gadget is still alive; I saved him from Infinite a few times..."

"So you could stop Infinite?"

"Not all of the time; just sometimes. Most of the time I was just a spectator in my own body. But when he got passive, or just less kill-happy? That was me wrestling him into submission." He cringed slightly. "I didn't use all of the chances I could have, but there's nothing I can do about it now... I'm responsible for some of the awful things he did, I guess, if I didn't stop him..."

Sonic knew depression when he saw it, and he decided to try and snap Zero out of the funk. "Don't say that! You at least stopped him from murdering as many people as he would have otherwise."

Zero kinda half-smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Still, I can't help but feel responsible for not intervening as often as I could."

"Hey, we all make mistakes sometimes."

"I guess so..."

Sonic silently continued attempting to comfort the jackal, while his mind was racing. So, Zero could have stopped Infinite from doing some of the horrible things he did, but he didn't. That's bad. At the same time, not everything Infinite did _could have_ been stopped, since Zero wasn't always able to wrestle control away, so he can't be completely condemned. Most of the time, Zero had no say in the matter. That much was clear. Still, he couldn't let the jackal get away with the things Infinite did. Could he?

Sonic's musings were interrupted by Tails coming down the stairs. "Hey, guys? Sorry to interrupt your heart-to-heart, but we've got some intel, and it's serious business."

Sonic hopped up from the bed. "Alright! We'll be up in a sec."

Zero looked at Sonic quizzically. " _We_?"

Sonic smirked. "What, do you think Knuckles isn't going to let you in on the meeting? After you saved our butts? Come on! Somebody has to come up with a plan."

Zero smiled; he finally felt included. "Alright then, let's go!"

The fox, the jackal, and the hedgehog went back up the stairs. There's a setup for a joke in there somewhere, but this isn't a comedy. They went back to the war kitchen, where everybody else was already waiting.

Tails went to the head of the table and started pulling up files on the screen. "So, Eggman isn't back, to start." A sigh of relief could be heard around the table. "However, we've got a new issue." Tails pulled up a file photo of a white platypus wearing a... fashion statement of an outfit. "Yes, I know his outfit's ugly. He goes by 'Doctor Starline', and he's apparently decided to take up the big bad role in Eggman's stead."

"'Doctor Starline'? More like 'Doctor Fashion Disaster'!" Sonic chuckled to himself. "So, what's up with him?"

"Well, he has lots of powerful robots. They'll be a challenge to take out, Wispon or no Wispon. I think he'll attack from the west, since that's where his factories are located."

Knuckles finally couldn't hold his peace anymore. "Not to interrupt, Tails, but what is the jackal doing here?"

Sonic almost jumped over the table to hit Knuckles. "He saved our lives! Besides, he's not even connected to Doctor Fashion Disaster. Give him a break." Sonic looked to Zero. "Besides, he's pretty good when it comes to strategy."

"Still, I don't trust him."

Zero feigned being hurt. "Really? After _all_ I've done for you?"

Sonic could tell a fight was brewing (mainly because Knuckles looked like he wanted to hop out of his chair), and he decided to put a stop to it. "Knuckles, he's staying. That's **_final_**."

Knuckles was caught off-guard. Sonic wasn't usually this assertive, especially not with him. He sighed. "Ugh, fine." He turned to Zero. "Well then, Mr. Grand Master Strategy Man, what do we do?"

Zero smirked; he could tell Knuckles was trying to make fun of him, but he didn't care. "First off, thanks for the compliment. Secondly, I've got a few suggestions on how to easily defend the base."

The idea was simple, in Zero's mind: play the invasion of Eggman's base, but from the opposite perspective. Instead of being the instigators, attacking the base, they needed to look at it from the perspective of the person in the base, trying to defend against the instigators. His plan was to station people on the wall to watch Starline's troop movements. If Starline sent a diversion force, say, from the west, to mask a larger attack from the east, they needed to know this so they could move troops around to hold off the intruders. The largest attack would have the most soldiers apportioned to it, so the biggest threat to the base would always have most of the defense.

Knuckles chimed in. "That's nice and all, but we already have the Sergeant to draw up battle plans-"

Sonic was firm and assertive on this topic. "Knuckles, the Sergeant almost got us killed. If Zero hadn't threatened Eggman's life with a Wispon, we wouldn't be here discussing any plans."

"I wouldn't say that. He held Red Gate well-"

Zero interjected. "Because I overruled his defense strategy! Who do you think decided to hem in the badniks: the guy who almost got you killed or the guy who saved your lives?"

Knuckles tried to speak, but Tails cut him off. "And why do you think I put Zero in the Sergeant's group for ' _Operation Tsunami_ '? Statistically, Zero hasn't failed in a plan yet, and has even succeeded in fixing plans that weren't his. He literally has a success rate over 100 percent."

Knuckles finally got a chance to get a word in edgewise, but he knew nothing he could say would convince the others. "Ugh, fine, we'll go with Zero's plan."

Zero smirked. "That's _Mr. Grand Master Strategy Man's plan_ to you."

"Oh, shut it."

"Anyways," Tails interrupted, "The intel suggests he'll make his move tomorrow. We should be ready for him."

Zero was confident. "Oh, we'll be ready."

* * *

Now that that was settled, Zero went back to the jail cell and packed his meager belongings. (Really, it was just the stuff he had been "arrested" with; the backpack, the sunglasses, and the tools.) Throwing his backpack over his shoulder, he waited by the door for Gadget to come pick him up.

Sure enough, the red wolf arrived, and the pair walked to Gadget's house. Along the way, they talked about random things. For instance, Zero explained the entire battle plan idea. Gadget agreed that it was probably a much better idea than the Sergeant could have thought up. They were both glad to know Eggman hadn't immediately regrouped (a valid concern, given the Doctor's IQ and planning skills).

Eventually, they arrived at Gadget's house. Gadget showed Zero around; it was your average house, not all that different from Resistance HQ in most ways. The living room was the main area just inside the door, the kitchen was to your left, and to your right were 2 levels of doors. On the bottom level, there was the bathroom, and on the upper level, there were 2 bedrooms. The only house rule was that Zero wasn't allowed into the workshop (the entrance to which was where the jail was in Resistance HQ) until the next morning. Zero asked why, but all Gadget said in response was "It's a surprise, you'll see..."

Gadget showed Zero to his new bedroom. It was the bedroom closest to the front of the house; a whole space, just for Zero. He put his bag down and flopped onto the bed.

He finally had a place to call home.


	8. Yet Another Battle Scene

The sun hadn't even risen. Zero would've known; he fell asleep facing the window.

Zero sighed. He was always the first to wake up in the morning. Whether it was with his squad, or with almost anybody (except for that one night when he had helped Tails, but he hadn't gotten to fall asleep until really late that night), he was usually the first awake, the first one out of the door, first for everything.

Well, almost everything.

He pushed that thought into the back of his head; unpleasant thoughts lead to dark places and all that jazz. Regardless, after getting ready for the day, he decided to look out the upstairs window into the square.

It was early enough that nobody was awake and moving, so the view from the window was a serene sight. A Flicky flies overhead, perhaps coming to a stop in the middle of the field before going on its way. A Pocky hops across the field, a destination in mind.

Zero let himself get absorbed in these simple motions, as if he were keeping watch over the square; it distracted him from the unpleasant thoughts threatening to invade his headspace.

* * *

_Meanwhile, later that morning..._

Gadget woke up with the sunrise, as he usually did. With the war being over, there was less and less of a reason to wake up super early. That being said, there were still skirmishes going on, like the one scheduled for today.

As Gadget went through his daily routine, his thoughts drifted. For example, he hoped his gift for Zero would work out. How was Zero doing anyways? The way he had reacted when Gadget showed him to his new room implied that Zero hadn't often had a room of his own.

After he finished his shower, Gadget walked up the stairs to see Zero staring out of the upstairs window. Not moving, not audibly breathing, just staring out the window, watching over the square. Was he awake? Did he fall asleep like that?

There was only one way to find out. Gadget walked over to Zero and put a hand on the jackal's shoulder.

Big mistake.

Zero, fully awake and not expecting the contact, immediately swung around and pulled Gadget into a headlock before realizing what was happening and letting go. He put a hand behind his head. "Sorry. Reflex."

Gadget made a mental note; _Zero doesn't like being touched unexpectedly._ He turned to Zero. "I've got something to show you. Follow me."

Gadget led Zero into his workshop. Immediately, a cyan Wisp flew over to Zero and started checking him out. Rather than run away or do anything to harm the alien, Zero simply held out a hand to it. The Wisp looked between the hand and the jackal attached to it a few times before checking out Zero's hand. After a few seconds, it seemed to decide Zero wasn't a threat, and it snuggled up to him, scaring him slightly.

Gadget smirked. "I see you've made a new friend."

Zero was still a little flustered that the Wisp had snuggled up to him. Could it really see through his tough-guy facade that easily? He realized Gadget was expecting a response. "Well, what can I say? I'm pretty good at... making friends..."

His mind went somewhere dark for a few seconds, but between Gadget and the cyan Wisp, they snapped him out of it quickly enough. Gadget seemed concerned. "Are you okay?"

Zero shook it off. "Yeah, I'm good now. Just... some bad memories, 'sall."

Gadget put his hand on Zero's shoulder. "Hey, if you need to talk through things, I'm here for you."

Zero grimaced. "I'm not so sure I'm ready to have that conversation..."

Gadget smiled. "Well, when you are, I'm all ears."

Zero smiled back. "...That's nice..."

Gadget decided to change the subject. "So, I remember you told me about your sword, and how badly you missed it. Well, I know I could never replace it, but I figured I could try to make up for you losing your sword..." He pulled out what appeared to be a sword hilt. "...with this."

Zero took the sword hilt from Gadget and looked at it skeptically. "No offense, but how is a sword hilt supposed to replace my sword? My sword had a blade-"

As if answering the unspoken call, the cyan Wisp flew into the hilt, and a brilliant cyan blade formed out of the top of the hilt. Gadget smirked. "I wouldn't have just given you a sword hilt for a whole sword."

Zero looked the new sword over, it now being fully extended. He tilted it back and forth in his hand; it was perfectly balanced. He smiled. "Sweet!"

Gadget picked up a piece of firewood and tossed it gently in the air towards Zero. "Think fast!"

Zero swung the sword at the firewood and chopped it in half, blade cutting through the wood like a knife through hot butter. His smile intensified. "Oh, this is nice. I could get used to this."

Gadget smiled back; he was glad to see Zero was enjoying his gift. "Oh, and there's one more thing about the sword I'd like to show you, but we should probably head outside first."

* * *

After a nice breakfast, once they were outside, Zero turned to Gadget. "Alright, what's this 'one more thing' you wanted to show me?"

Gadget pointed at a small button near where Zero's thumb usually rested. "Do you see that button right there?" Zero nodded. "Well, if you press that, then some of the Hyper-go-on energy will be redirected from forming the blade to grant you extra speed in a similar fashion to the natural Color Power of the cyan Wisp, while reducing traction and being harder to handle around corners and such."

Zero looked lost. "Gadget, we're good friends, but I didn't understand a word you just said. Can you say that again? In 'someone-who-doesn't-know-how-to-design-a-lazer-sword' terms?"

Gadget sighed. "If you press the button, some of the Wisp's energy will make you faster. It's harder to handle around corners-"

"So it's best for straight-line speed. See? Was that so hard?"

Gadget sighed. "You can be a pain." He smirked. "Race you to HQ!"

And without another word, Gadget took off towards Resistance HQ, using his grappling hook to move at great speeds. Zero smirked to himself. "If he wanted a race, all he had to do was ask." Pressing the button, he started after Gadget, making sure to disengage the boost when going around corners.

Still, on the final stretch to the HQ, Zero found himself far behind Gadget. It was at that point that the cyan Wisp disengaged with Zero's sword. It looked at him, and he knew what it was suggesting.

The cyan Wisp phased into Zero, and he could feel the Color Power. He pointed himself in the direction of the HQ door, and off they went, leaving Gadget in the dust. As the transformation ended, Zero stumbled, but he managed to recover by half-running, half-stumbling up the stairs, turning around, and leaning against the wall, as if that had been his plan the whole time.

A few seconds later, Gadget appeared, almost out of breath. "H-How?"

The cyan Wisp phased out of Zero, taking a place over the jackal's right shoulder. They shared a fist-bump, and Zero looked to the Wisp. "I think I'll call you Cy."

Gadget looked puzzled. "Cy?"

"Yeah, like Cy Young, the pitcher; well-known for his _fastball_." He turned to "Cy". "What do you think?" Cy thought for a second, and then nodded. "See? He likes it."

"If you two are done yakking, we've got a battle to fight."

Knuckles was standing in the doorway, looking more than a little tired. Zero decided to pick on him. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

Knuckles grabbed Zero by the chest fur. "Listen, I don't know how the hell you got Sonic to trust you, but I've got my eye on you. You'd better not mess this up."

Zero put his hands up defensively. "Jeez, alright, you don't have to murder me. Point taken." Knuckles let go, and Zero dusted himself off. "Are the watchers on the wall yet?"

Knuckles nodded. "I'm still not sure why we need to keep soldiers up there, when we could use the help on the ground."

Zero let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not sure what you don't get. We need to know what Starline is up to at all times. If he shifts his troops around at any moment, we need to know and be able to adjust accordingly."

Knuckles let out a sigh of his own. "I still think we could use the help down here, but I guess whatever you say goes."

Zero smirked. "Of course it does. They don't call me 'Mr. Grand Master Strategy Man' for nothing."

Knuckles facepalmed. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Of course not."

Zero and Knuckles were interrupted by some shouting from the wall. Knuckles yelled up to the people on the wall. "What's going on?"

A soldier looked back down over the wall, and seemingly immediately regretted looking down. "They're saying some troops are coming to the south."

Knuckles smiled, though it was a vacant smile. "Well, here we go. Let's send the whole army-"

Zero put a finger to Knuckles' face. "Gimme a second." He yelled up to the soldier on the wall. "About how many are coming?"

After some further shouts on the wall, the soldier had a response. "They say about 8 armored robots are inbound."

" _Eight_?" Zero turned to Knuckles. "This is a distraction. There's no way he's intending to take the whole stronghold with only 8 robots."

Knuckles sighed. "Whatever." He turned to one of the soldiers near him on the ground. "Send a few battalions to the south. Enough to hold it, but not too many." The soldier nodded and ran off to go gather the requested troops.

The soldier from the wall peeked their head over the battlement. "Uh, sir? There's a much bigger force coming from the north. Like, 8 thousand robots bigger."

Zero smirked. "And there's our invasion force. See? I know what I'm doing."

Knuckles sighed again; this whole thing was just not going his way. "Let me guess, you want to lead the army against the invasion force."

"Unless you don't have faith in your 'Mr. Grand Master Strategy Man' to win a battle." He leaned in towards Knuckles. "And to answer your question from earlier? Sonic trusts me because I've proven myself on several occasions. Maybe you can pay attention this time."

Knuckles was slightly taken aback, but he quickly recovered. "Whatever. Just don't mess this up." He turned to another soldier near him. "Gather the rest of the troops at the north gate. Tell them to take orders from the jackal." The soldier in question nodded and went to rally the troops. Zero seemed a little conflicted, before shaking his head and taking off for the north gate.

Gadget, on the other hand, wasn't so quick to hold his tongue- or, rather, his hands. "[He has a name, you know.]"

"Whatever. Get to the north gate already."

* * *

When the army had gathered at the north gate, they saw Doctor Starline barking orders at the mass of robots behind him. Zero picked up a rock and hit Starline directly in the back of the head, causing him to turn around in surprise. "What? How did you know I was here?"

"The Resistance is many things," Zero countered, "but we're not blind." He gestured to the many robots behind Doctor Starline. "Did you think we'd miss 8,000 robots marching on our northern side?"

Starline thought about it for a second. "Fair." He shook it off. "No matter; you're going to lose anyways. Robots, attack!"

And so the battle began. Doctor Starline had apparently planned on a quantity-over-quality approach, as many of the robots went down in one hit, whether it was the swing of Zero's new Sword Wispon, or the flames of a Burst Wispon. Still, by their sheer numbers, it seemed like the robots were succeeding at pushing the Resistance forces back.

In one case, Zero had just sliced through a few robots, when he noticed a soldier being cornered by a robot with a blaster. Using the speed boost mechanic on the Sword Wispon, Zero easily sped over, sliced the robot in half and tossed the soldier their Wispon. He nodded to the soldier before continuing on.

Eventually, Zero caught on to Gadget signaling him, and the pair retreated to the back of the battle. Gadget went first, signing. "[We need to get a leg up on them, or this is never going to end.]"

Zero grimaced. "[I know. But how are we going to catch Starline off-guard?]"

Gadget shrugged. "[I mean, the guy seems kind of self-centered. Maybe if we fake a retreat?]"

Zero smirked, a plan already forming. "[Take some soldiers with you to the first chokepoint and build some fortifications. I'll call for the rest to fall back, and you can have soldiers spring from behind the fortifications and catch Starline off-guard.]"

Gadget nodded. "[Good plan.]"

Although not many soldiers knew sign language, one did not need a thorough understanding of Mobian Sign Language to understand "follow me" and "build fortifications" (the latter of which was basically just pointing the materials out, since the idea of building parapets was a given when behind the main battle lines).

Starline saw the troops falling back and smirked. "What's wrong, platypus got your number?"

Zero didn't dignify Starline with a response. Instead, he just started destroying the robots faster. The remaining soldiers, invigorated by Zero's example, followed suit.

Eventually, Gadget came back out. "[We're ready when you are.]"

Zero smiled. "[Just a few more robots first.]"

After slicing his way through 5 or so robots, Zero, true to his word, called out the order. "Fall back!"

Starline chuckled. "You're really just going to let me in your walls? How nice of you..."

He pressed a few buttons in his mech, and the robots started following the soldiers back. Starline finally got his mech inside the walls...

...only for the gate to close behind him. Sonic smiled from the wall. "Hey, wanna hear a joke?" Sonic jumped down from the wall, sticking the landing on the ground. "It's you, Doc. You're the joke."

As soon as Sonic landed, some soldiers jumped out from behind the defenses. Rather than target any of the robots, these soldiers went directly for Starline.

Zero smirked and turned to Gadget. "[Get that idea from me?]"

Gadget smiled and shrugged. "[Hey, if it ain't broke, right?]"

In the ensuing mayhem, Starline was able to escape. The same could not be said of the remaining robots, which were all summarily reduced to scrap metal. Sonic let Zero borrow his communicator to call Knuckles. "Well, Commander, we've got a victory here in the north. The new Doctor got away, but we got all of his robots down."

Knuckles sighed. "Well, the forces in the South just got done with their robots, so I guess the battle's over. Bring the robots back to HQ; maybe Tails can reverse-engineer them."

"Got it. Not too shabby for my first try as the battle planner, eh, Commander?"

"Shut up and bring the robots to base."

Zero sighed and handed Sonic his communicator. "Knuckles woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, and he seems to want to take it out on me."

"Don't worry, he's not usually that mad." Sonic rubbed the back of his head. "It does seem to be aimed more at you, though."

"Eh, whatever. Let the red echidna stew, I guess."

* * *

Later that day, after a nice shower, Zero laid down on his bed. He was feeling pretty happy, all things considered. Sure, Knuckles was a pain in the butt, but that was expected. He felt like there was nothing he couldn't do; with Sonic and Tails backing him up, Knuckles couldn't really act on his anger. Besides, in Gadget, Zero had finally found a friend.

He had finally found a friend.

...Oh no.

All too quickly, Zero's head reminded him of what happened the last time he made friends. He didn't really want to dwell on it (in fact, the last time he had even thought about it was that morning), but he certainly didn't want a repeat of that.

Altogether too quick for the decision to be rational, Zero made up his mind. If he ran away, maybe Gadget would forget about him. Maybe Gadget could be spared of the fate that befell Zero's last 4 friends. Zero packed his bag, with his makeshift toolset and sunglasses, and took off.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Zero, a certain Wisp saw everything that happened. Cy flew over to Gadget's room and shook the wolf awake. Half-asleep, Gadget stumbled out into the hallway. After a few seconds, some things registered in Gadget's head.

One, Zero's bedroom door was wide open, meaning there was no way Zero could be inside (Zero slept with the door shut, and was very particular about that). Two, there was no light coming from downstairs, which meant Zero couldn't be in the bathroom (when the light was on in the bathroom, there was a little light that would seep out from under the door). Three, the workshop door was still closed, which meant Zero wouldn't be in there either (Gadget didn't hear the door open, and the workshop door was long overdue for a greasing). Four, Zero was nowhere to be seen in the kitchen or living room areas.

Eventually, it clicked.

Zero was gone.

Gadget broke out into a full sprint. He figured he could get help finding Zero from HQ. As he ran, thoughts flashed in his head. _Where could Zero have gone? And why was he in such a hurry?_ Gadget didn't know. All he knew was that Zero was probably in need of some serious help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized as I was writing this chapter that I've been kinda glossing over Zero's trauma in the previous chapters. I mean, he still has to deal with the trauma of what happened at the Mystic Jungle base.
> 
> ~~Why does every version of Zero I try to write have serious unaddressed mental trauma and a need for therapy?~~
> 
> As we approach the final act of this story, both boys will need to handle their individual traumas before they can let this whole "Infinite" thing lie.


	9. A Runaway, Some Cursing, And Some Absolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Strong language ahead. I try to avoid cursing when not absolutely necessary, but I feel like the 2 curse words in this chapter were kind of important, just to capture how the characters are feeling at the moment.

When Gadget got to HQ, most of the lights were out. Interestingly enough, there was a lamp on a side table that was lit, and Sonic was sitting on the couch near it, reading some heavy-looking book. "Gadget? What are you doing? It's, like, midnight."

"It's Zero. He's gone."

At once, Sonic was raising full alarm and waking everybody up. Sure, Zero might not have the Phantom Ruby anymore, but he could still raise hell enough without it. Sonic's plan was simple: if Zero's in trouble, help him, but if he's causing trouble, stop him.

Knuckles came out of his room. "Ugh, what's happening?"

Sonic was already looking over a map, assigning different sectors to different people. "Zero ran away. We need to figure out what's going on-"

He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Knuckles cut in. "See, I knew I couldn't trust that jackal."

Something welled up in Gadget's eyes- anger, tears, whatever- and he turned to Knuckles. "HE HAS A NAME, ASSHOLE!" Gadget promptly turned on his heels and stormed out of the room.

Knuckles was caught off-guard. "Jeez, who pissed in his cereal this morning-"

Sonic had had enough of Knuckles' bullshit. "What the hell is wrong with you? Gadget comes to us with a serious problem and you can't keep your Chaos-damned mouth shut for 10 seconds and help out? You and your anger management issues are probably why he ran away in the first place!"

Knuckles was mad. "But I was _right_ , wasn't I? I said he couldn't be trusted, and now he's run off with our secrets-"

" _Will you shut up about that for, like, **five seconds?**_ Right now, our priority should be figuring out what's going on. Don't jump to conclusions yet."

"But I'm-"

A chorus of voices came up, Sonic, Amy, Tails, and a few others in the room. "NOBODY CARES!"

Knuckles sulked off, back to his room, and Sonic's eyes lingered on Knuckles' door frame for a few seconds after the door had been unceremoniously slammed shut. "I gotta go clear my head; I'll take the forest as my search area."

He took off towards the forest, and his usual running path. He ran the whole length of the path, up and down, three times, four times, five times, but still, his head wasn't clear. He then suddenly had a thought: what about the path to the clearing?

At this point, he wasn't even thinking about finding Zero; that could wait. The clearing was nice and peaceful, and maybe it would clear his head to relax there for a while. He found where the fork branched off from the main path and took it.

As he ran down the winding and curving path, he thought back to the first time he had run this path. He had finally gotten time to go down the path by waking up early that morning; he had run down the winding path, just as he was doing at the moment. The path may have been long and winding, but Sonic noted how nature had been mostly left undisturbed apart from the path; Zero had obviously just followed a natural path through to the main trail.

His thoughts drifted back to Zero; he was worried for Zero's safety, sure, but he knew the look he saw in Gadget's eyes well. That wasn't just the look of concern for a friend; that was something much more. He wondered if Gadget knew, but ultimately decided it wasn't that important. Regardless, he was doing this for Gadget's sake, much more than Zero's sake or his own sake.

Sonic's thoughts drifted back to _finding_ Zero; wouldn't it be funny if he rounded the last turn into the clearing and-

There he was: Zero, sitting on the river bank with his back to the trail.

Sonic smirked, before calling out to Zero from a distance. "A lot of people are looking for you, you know."

Zero's head swung over his shoulder to see who his visitor was. When it clicked, Zero let out an exasperated sigh. "Why is it that every time I try to disappear, you always find me?"

Sonic thought about it for a second. "I dunno. Maybe Chaos just finds it convenient." He joined Zero on the river bank. "It would help if you varied your hiding spots."

Zero sighed again. "It's a good place to sit and think." He thought for a second. "I don't even know why I bothered looking over my shoulder. You're the only other person who knows about this place."

Sonic smiled. "True that." After a second, he decided to cut to the point. "So, why'd you run away?" He feigned hurt. "I thought we were getting along..."

"That's the problem." Zero was almost deadpan. "I'm getting along with people... which knowing my track record... isn't a good idea."

Sonic was lost. "...what do you..."

"Mystic Jungle; about 8 months ago. My squad and I were defending an Eggman base there, when this black hedgehog attacked. He spared me, but he killed the rest of my squad. I was so devastated by the loss, I became Infinite to get revenge..."

"Wait... black hedgehog..." The pieces clicked into place, although Sonic hated to admit it. Everything suddenly made sense; who had attacked an Eggman base in the Mystic Jungle area 8 months ago? Who wouldn't object to murdering anything or anyone in his path? Who caused the entire war to happen through what he did that fateful night? "Shadow. I can't believe it; I'm going to give him hell when I see him-"

"Don't. It's not his fault." Zero stared blankly into the murky depths of the river. "I'm the one who couldn't protect his friends."

"Don't say that. If he weren't so trigger-happy, we might not even be here. Either way, dwelling on your past mistakes won't fix anything in the present-"

"Yeah, it won't, but I'm taking steps to fix things now."

Sonic was still livid, but he decided to humor Zero. "And how is running away going to fix anything?"

"Well, if I stay gone, eventually Gadget will forget about me. We won't be friends, and so, he won't be in danger."

"I don't know why you're so worried about something happening; you're on the right side of the conflict now-"

"I thought I was on the right side when I was with Eggman; see how that ended up for me? You assume the side you're on is the right one, but no matter who is right, you're always in danger from the other side."

"...I can't argue with that." Sonic really couldn't; that was a good point. He couldn't really guarantee Zero that he and his friends would be okay, because maybe Eggman would attack them-- maybe even Starline could attack-- and something could happen.

They sat there in silence. After a while, they laid back on the bank and looked up at the stars. Just to the left of the moon, Sonic could see the Death Egg floating by, and he pointed this out to Zero, who simply hummed an acknowledgment.

Eventually, the answer came to Sonic. He turned to Zero. "You know, I was thinking it over... they say if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it, right?"

Zero scoffed. "Yes. That's why I'm staying away from making friends; when I made friends, they got killed."

"Except, that wasn't what you were supposed to learn from that."

Zero was lost. "How is that not the lesson? I wasn't there to save them-"

Sonic jumped slightly. " **That's the lesson!** You should be there for your friends! Sure, Chaos didn't need to have Shadow kill your squad to teach you that, but Chaos also destroyed an entire city. He's not exactly known for his good decision-making."

There was another prolonged silence. Sonic figured it would be best to let Zero digest what he said; after all, Sonic hadn't fully considered his words, and he was the one saying them. It made sense; the real lesson Chaos was trying to teach Zero was to be there for his friends, not to avoid making friends altogether. Also, Chaos _had_ destroyed an entire city before. Maybe he wasn't the one to go to for sound decisions.

Zero sat up suddenly. "Chaos, you're right. By ditching Gadget, I might have put him in more danger." He scrambled to his feet with a scared look in his eyes. "Come on, let's go back."

Sonic let a smirk appear on his face as Zero started down the track; Zero was totally in love with Gadget, if he knew it or not. He eventually caught up to Zero, and walked him back to HQ; well, it was more of a brisk jog for the hedgehog and a sprint for the jackal. They got back to the HQ, and as they walked in the door, Gadget was sweeping the living room. Sonic smiled. "See? He's fine."

Gadget looked up, and orange eyes met blue and yellow. He almost dropped the broom where he stood.

Sonic smiled; this was going to be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was rereading the story, and I kept getting romantic undertones from it. Like, Gadget cares about Zero a little more than you would expect someone to care for this random stranger they just met a few days ago. So, basically, whether I intended it from the start or not, they're gay now, and that's fine by me.


	10. An Arrival, and A Redeparture

After a few seconds, Gadget broke eye contact. The broom was quickly and haphazardly discarded -- Silver caught it and put it where it belonged -- and Gadget all but tackled Zero, who miraculously managed to stay on his feet after the initial contact. They hugged on the floor for a few seconds, before Gadget pulled away. "[Never do that again! I was so worried....]"

Zero simply offered a smile in return. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing that again anytime soon."

Suddenly, Knuckles spoke up from the back of the room. "So, what's his punishment going to be?"

Before Zero even had time to look indignant, Sonic immediately jumped in. "Punishment? You're really going to push for a _punishment_?"

Tails, who had been sitting at the table, simply shook his head. "Here we go."

Sonic stepped up to Knuckles; as strong as the Resistance commander may be, Sonic was still the hero of the universe, and could easily take him in a fight. "What the hell is your problem? First off, you were absolutely _wrong_ ; he didn't actually go running off to Eggman or Starline like you thought he would. He just needed some time off." Sonic stepped even closer, almost getting close enough to force Knuckles to step back. He continued, talking in a quieter voice (although, given the volume he started with, getting quieter didn't mean much). "He has been through _a ton_ and the last thing he needs right now is to get punished for breaking down."

Knuckles decided he could argue this point. "But that means you were wrong, too! You said it was my anger management issues that-"

Sonic was having none of it. "Yeah, but that certainly didn't help things any! If you didn't assume the worst and get yourself so worked up, maybe things would have turned out differently. Or maybe not! Who cares?"

"But-"

Now it was Amy who had had enough, between Knuckles' attempts at countering Sonic's points and Sonic's obviously rising anger. "Shut up, Knuckles!" With one palm to his forehead, she practically threw him through the wall behind him, and she went over to Zero. "Hey, if you ever need to talk-"

Zero shook his head. "No, I'm good now. Just had to work through some things."

Amy smiled and gave him space. "Well, my door's always open."

Zero smiled back. "Good to know." He stood up; Gadget immediately tried to pull him back down, to no avail. He turned to Gadget, who was clinging onto his arm desperately. "Come on, I think the couch would be a little more comfortable than the floor."

Gadget, slightly embarrassed, got up and shuffled over with Zero to the opposite side of the couch from where Sonic had been sitting originally.

As Zero sat down on the couch, he couldn't help but notice Gadget's heart was racing. Was that his fault? He felt terrible for running off as he did. There was nothing he could about it now, other than console Gadget and hold him close.

Meanwhile, Sonic was sulking in the corner, looking like he'd very much rather be anywhere else. Zero didn't notice that, however; he was lost in thought. Something about this felt different. When he had held Tails during the storm, it felt like he was protecting a companion, but with Gadget? It felt like something more. Zero couldn't explain the difference, but it was there nonetheless. Holding Gadget close, he felt like he would die for his friend if given the opportunity. That almost certainly wasn't normal, but what it truly was escaped him at the moment.

Suddenly, without warning, Sonic sped off, slamming the door behind him. Zero paused, looking at the door for a second, before facepalming. "For Chaos' sake, I just got back." He got up from the couch, with Gadget giving some protest. "I'll go see what's up with him."

Gadget immediately started signing. "[I'll go with you! That is, if you want me to...]"

Zero pondered for a second before responding. "Actually, I think this is something I should do alone. If I'm right about this, he's also going through a ton, and I think it'd be better for him if it were just me." He held Gadget's shoulders. "I promise I'll be back tomorrow."

Gadget wasn't happy, but he nodded anyway. "[You'd better be.]"

Zero headed on out. As he did, he thought to himself, about this whole thing. What was he going to say to Sonic?

...What _could_ he say to Sonic?

He didn't have an answer himself; "it was Infinite, not me" would be a lame excuse, since who had agreed to be a vessel for Infinite but Zero? Really, it was all Zero's fault too, as much as he hated to admit it. And yet, something else within him told him Sonic wouldn't accept "It was all my fault and I'm sorry" as an answer. Sonic had, after all, been the one who told Zero that he couldn't be blamed for everything Infinite did. Even though Zero had chosen to be Infinite, apparently, in the Blue Blur's eyes, Zero wasn't entirely the one to blame. It made no sense to Zero, but apparently, it was how Sonic felt.

So if "it was Infinite, not me" was a weak excuse, and Sonic wouldn't listen to "it was all my fault and I'm sorry", what did that leave him with?

Zero rounded the final corner and, to his utter lack of surprise, found Sonic laying down in the center of the clearing. He decided that no matter what his response would be, he needed to start off on the right foot. He spoke softly. "Hey."

Sonic didn't even have to look up to recognize that voice. "Hey."

"Wanna talk?"

"No."

"Okay." Zero walked over and laid down next to Sonic. They sat there, staring at the stars for a while, waiting for Sonic to be ready to talk things through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> weeeeeeeee
> 
> I know the ending's a little weak but I wanted to devote the entire next chapter to trying to walk down the web of trauma for both of these characters (because in case you can't tell, neither of them are particularly okay). I think this fic should be over in 1-2 more chapters; that's where I _should_ reach a logical stopping point that I can pick up from in a sequel (when I have the time to write the sequel).


	11. Talking It Out

It took a while of looking at the stars, but finally Sonic spoke up. "You know, those six months on the Death Egg were real torture."

Zero nodded. "I can't even begin to imagine what that must have felt like for you."

"Just... sitting there, not being able to help my friends as they lost battle after battle. That really gets to you after a while, you feel me?"

"I feel you. Not being able to help your friends... I've been there before."

Sonic sat up suddenly. "I'm sorry, I wasn't even thinking-"

Zero put his arm out and gently pushed Sonic back down. "No, no, this is about you. We can worry about my issues later."

After a few more seconds, Sonic continued. "And then when I got out, I had to pretend like everything was sunshine and roses, or my friends would be worried about me instead of the war. Every time I faced Infinite, I was terrified, but I bottled it up because there were more pressing issues than my fear."

Zero caught on to what Sonic was implying. "But when the war ended, nobody knew you had a problem..."

Sonic nodded. "...so I had to keep that inside. I figured it'd be easy, what with Infinite being gone..."

"...but then I just _had_ to show up in your woods and make the whole thing a million times more complicated."

Sonic nodded again. "At first, I was super defensive, expecting 'Infinite' to want revenge or to hurt my friends, but... you helped Tails with his fear of lightning, and you helped us win battles we might have lost otherwise, and suddenly I wasn't so sure. And then I found out that Infinite wasn't entirely your doing, and I was even less sure of myself. It all came to a head there in HQ; my head was screaming 'run', even though you were just chilling on the couch with Gadget. The whole thing just made no sense, and when the world isn't making sense..."

"...you go for a run to clear your head. I understand; sometimes that helps me, too." Zero shuffled from his laying position. "Well, I'd like to apologize for what happened with Infinite. I should have-"

Now it was Sonic who put his arm out, this time to shush Zero. "No, no, it's not really your fault. Still, apology accepted; I feel better already. Now let's talk about you."

Zero shook his head. "No, no, we'll be here forever, I've got too much."

Sonic smirked. "Well, if it'll take a while, let's get started."

Zero sighed; Sonic wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Well, there's not really that much to talk about. As we talked about literally a couple hours ago, I wasn't able to save my squad from Shadow. I was sad, and angry, and embarrassed..."

"...So you became Infinite?"

Zero shook his head again. "I mean, yes, in a grand sense that's what happened, but what actually happened was that Eggman baited me into becoming Infinite by promising me revenge."

Sonic nodded; he was starting to understand. "But obviously, that didn't work out..."

"...because Infinite just wanted death, destruction, and despair. He didn't want revenge on Shadow; he didn't even know or care about who Shadow was. It was all just a ploy to get me to agree to be a vessel to... to that _thing_."

"...Huh." Sonic paused for a moment. "You know what I just realized?"

"What?"

"In a weird roundabout way, Eggman's responsible for both of us being traumatized. I mean, he didn't kill your squad, but he tricked you into becoming Infinite; and because he's responsible for you being Infinite..."

"...He's responsible for you being tortured. Chaos, this is complicated."

"Tell me about it."

The two sat there for a minute or two, pondering the implications of that revelation.

Zero eventually spoke up. "But what does that even mean, in the grand scheme of things? I mean, we were both already opposed to Eggman, so this doesn't really change who we consider our enemy to be."

Sonic thought for a moment before answering. "Well, it changes what we think about him. We've got even more of a reason to fight against him, since we both suffered because of him."

"But still, that doesn't mean much." Zero shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I just expected that reveal to be something big."

"Maybe it is," Sonic reasoned, "and we just haven't figured out what it is yet."

"Fair enough." Zero paused. "...So now what?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'so now what'?"

"Well, what do we do? We've both got issues, we've admitted it ourselves, so now what do we do about it?"

"Well, Amy usually plays the therapist for the group-"

"Amy?" Zero rolled over on his side to face Sonic. "Sonic, she's twelve. _Please_ tell me the Resistance hasn't been piling their moral dilemmas on a twelve-year-old."

"Well, I mean, sometimes we ask Silver-"

"Isn't he fourteen?" Zero rolled back onto his back and sighed. "I think we need to find a _real_ therapist out there and then _everybody_ needs real therapy."

Sonic paused for a moment. "Fair enough."

"...So, are we okay? Can we go back to HQ, or do we need to spend a little more time here?"

Sonic looked up towards the sky. "I mean, a little more relaxing and reflecting never hurt anyone..."

Zero chuckled. "Fine by me."

They sat and looked at the stars for another hour.

* * *

Once they were done "relaxing and reflecting", as Sonic had put it, Zero and Sonic walked back to HQ.

As soon as they entered the doorframe, Tails almost tackled Sonic to the floor. Zero shook his head. "Separation anxiety's one hell of a drug..." He walked over to Gadget and smiled. "See? I'm back, like I said I would be."

Gadget smiled through... tears? "I didn't doubt it for a second." Zero arched his eyebrow, and Gadget shook his head. "Alright, fine, I was worried sick. Better?"

"Honesty's always better. Let's go home and get some sleep. How late is it anyways?"

Sonic looked at his watch. "Oh, Chaos, it's almost midnight. Good night, everybody!"

Everybody went to bed. Tomorrow would be a new day.


	12. An Absolution and Resolution

Everybody was in the living room. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Most of the main crew was in the living room. The entire Resistance wouldn't fit in the living room; they probably wouldn't even all fit in the stronghold, and the stronghold itself was quite large.

But logistics aside, most of the main cast was in the living room; Sonic wanted to talk to them. "I guess I should come clean. I've been... struggling with mental health. For a while now. And after I ran off yesterday, Zero and I came to the startling realization that many of us are also struggling with mental health issues. I mean, we're _children_ who just fought a _war_ , for Chaos' sake!"

Rouge piped up. "Hey, we're not all children-"

He was having none of it. "Rouge, I can literally count the number of _adults_ I know on one hand. You, Vector, Vanilla, Zero, and I think Gadget's 18. That's it."

She shrugged. "Fair enough."

"As I was _saying_ , it's also come to my attention that some of us may have... other issues, other than trauma, that also need addressing. Also, that maybe piling all of our issues on Amy and Silver isn't exactly healthy for anyone."

Amy and Silver looked at each other. It was true; they were usually the people the Resistance came to with mental health problems (although Silver got many, _many_ more physical health problems, but that came with running an infirmary).

"As such, Zero and I decided to look around, and we managed to find a therapist who would work for us _pro bono_. Each of you will be seeing Dr. Williams once a week for the foreseeable future."

Tails seemed a little upset. "Why? I'm fine; I don't need someone prying at me."

Sonic and Zero looked at each other, with an expression on each of their faces that read "yeah, right". Sonic turned to Tails. "Tails, you're going to therapy and that's _final_."

Zero chimed in. "Yeah. Don't worry; if you're fine, you shouldn't need to go to therapy for too long." There was an implicit "but you're not fine" in there, but either Tails didn't notice or he didn't care enough to raise a fuss.

Knuckles smirked. "Let me guess, you're finally going to get me anger management classes?"

Sonic smiled an almost vacant smile back at him. "Of course I am. Don't think I didn't catch you threatening to kill Zero the day of the battle." Knuckles' expression immediately fell, and he shrunk back to his corner.

Zero piped up. "Any questions? ...No? Good. Meeting dismissed. Let's go get some breakfast."

* * *

It had been a few months since that meeting, and everybody seemed to be a little cheerier for it. Sure, Eggman came back, and so did Starline, and one time they even joined forces. Still, it was nothing compared to the toll of a full-on war, and the Resistance was able to weather the storm.

As for Zero's secret, Sonic had been quick to kibosh any inquiries into Zero's past. It wasn't important, Sonic reasoned, as even if he was Infinite, he had very clearly turned over a new leaf. As far as the Resistance was concerned, the past could stay in the past forever.

Meanwhile, everybody was getting better at the things they were having trouble with. Knuckles got his anger under control, Tails made great strides towards treating his astraphobia and separation anxiety, and everybody in general seemed to be handling stress a lot better than they may have had in the past.

On this particular bright afternoon, it was board game day. All around the stronghold, Resistance members faced off in games ranging from Chutes and Ladders and UNO on one end to Blackjack and Hold'em Poker on the other (blame Rouge for those ones). In particular, Zero, Gadget, and Sonic were currently in the middle of a heated game of Monopoly. At the moment, Zero and Gadget were arguing over the houses. Gadget was arguing that Zero had to convert his 4-house properties into a hotel, while Zero argued that no such rule existed. Eventually, Sonic managed to find the rulebook hidden in the couch and told Gadget that Zero was right; he could use all of the houses he wanted. Gadget muttered something about Zero being unfair, and they went back to playing.

Zero had managed to get himself in Jail on his next roll. He was easily the farthest ahead in the game, owning half of the game board by himself (which at this stage, especially with Sonic competing, was an achievement).

Gadget rolled a 9 and landed on one of Zero's properties; he sighed and handed Zero his money. "[I'm so done for. I've already mortgaged most of my properties and I'm almost broke.]"

Zero tapped his shoulder. "[Hey, I'll give you 1000 dollars if you give me Strand and Picadilly. I need those for my color sets.]" Gadget handed over the mortgaged deeds, and Zero handed over the money. Almost immediately, Zero turned to Tails and forked over more cash. "I'll just unmortgage these." He swapped out some 4-house properties for hotels on his other color sets, before moving the 4-house sets to the new Red and Yellow monopolies he owned.

Sonic gawked. "That's not fair! If I knew you were going to give him Strand and Picadilly for _that_ , I would have offered you more!"

Gadget shrugged. "[Your fault for not learning sign language.]"

Zero nodded. "Yeah, if you want to get ahead of the ball, you have to learn sign language."

Sonic sighed. "Note to self: learn sign language so your canine friends can't cut you out of negotiations in Monopoly."

Tails suddenly came running to the doorway, stopping to catch his breath. "Uh... Zero? You might want to see this."

Zero smiled before getting up. "Alright."

Sonic spoke up. "What about the Monopoly game?"

Zero pondered for a second before smiling. "Gadget gets all of my money and properties. Have fun!" He turned to Tails. "Lead the way."

He didn't know what he did to deserve this.

But that was okay; he'd take it one step at a time, and let the infinite possibilities come to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, with that last title drop, that's the end for now. I've got ideas for 2 different ways I could continue this story, and I think I'll eventually get around to both (split timelines, anyone?). For now, though, I think I'll let this story rest.
> 
> I'll take this moment to plug my [Tumblr](https://minerobber.tumblr.com/). Have a wonderful rest of your day (and if you're reading this in the US when it's posted and you can vote, go vote! it's important!).


End file.
